


Conception

by nympsycho



Category: Mad Max Series (Movies), Mad Max: Fury Road
Genre: F/M, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Miscarriage, Nux Lives, Pregnancy, Unplanned Pregnancy, but we all know lmao, capable explaining what mestruation is, daddy!nux, furiosa leads the citadel, maternal capable, mommy!capable, paternal nux, pregnant capable, unknown father
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-10
Updated: 2015-06-17
Packaged: 2018-04-03 18:13:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 39,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4110346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nympsycho/pseuds/nympsycho
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sequel to "Misconceptions" but it's not necessary to read.</p><p>After Nux and Capable explore their bodies together in the New Citadel, strange feelings begin enveloping Capable. While she has to adjust to her new life with Nux, she has to battle some odd complications that seem to be taking over her body, her mind, her relationships with the Sisters and Nux. With her new life developing, she bears another. Another, whose origins may be a tragic result of her past life, or a treasure from her new one. Either way, Nux, Capable, and the rest of the Sisters must adapt to the new life, nurture it, cherish it: a new beacon of hope for the Citadel.</p><p>Chapter 1 is just introductory to the situation of the Citadel, real fun stuff begins chapter 2, Nux being a daddy starts chapter 4 :)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Week One

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! So after my fic RUTBOY I was very pleased to expand more on the paternal feelings that Nux must feel and wanted to explore how that would develop with a child that Capable had. 
> 
> This chapter is introductory, come back for chapter 2 for actual pregnancy references.
> 
> Tumblr: nympsycho

**Week One**

She awoke the next morning, the thralls of passion long gone yet still lingering under her skin, tingling, warm. A deep sigh brought her to this world instead of the one of dreams, where her previous night was black and peaceful. Opening her eyes to see her room, morning sunlight filling in from the window, she realized something was missing.

His arm around her.

Her brows furrowing as she heaved herself up, longing for his warmth next to her despite it being a bit too hot for her liking, she pushed the blanket off of her. Then she heard it.

Breathing.

His pale body next to her was comforting; he hadn't left, he was there, though he was splayed out on his side of the bed, blankets amiss, his chest rising and falling, rising and falling. He was there.

Capable smiled and, not wanting to disturb Nux's sleep, she shifted from the bed and walked to the bathroom, light-footed. 

How amazing it was to be with him, she thought. How gentle he was with her, how he revered her and kissed her and caressed her. It was still new, and they had plenty of time to explore, plenty of time to explore their new selves. It would be time to see what Furiosa needed of her soon; she insisted on having a part in the reformation of the Citadel, no matter how small. She turned on the water to the shower, precious water that was thought to be rare so abundant in the hightower, warm and steaming the tile. She stepped in, forgetting the wasteland for a moment and thinking only of him, his body splayed out on the bed.

–

Nux woke with a start, his eyes snapping open. He'd always gotten up like that, though he couldn't remember the last time it was from his own desire and not from the morning commotion of the bunks or a night fever or the lack of oxygen as Larry and Barry choked him. He relaxed, a deep breath cleansing the sleepy air from his lungs, swallowing the saliva that was now abundant in his mouth. 

Capable.

Where was she?

He sat up, searching the room. Had she left? Had he done something wrong? Was he too loud? Did he have a nightmare and thrash around too much, scaring her away? Did he--

A soft humming from the bathroom.

Oh.

Nux smiled. She stayed. She was here. Not _here_ , but she was here, with him, just showering. He remembered how warm she had been, how breathtaking she was just the night before. He anticipated exploring her more, feeling her more, kissing her more. It was so nice to kiss, he realized. It was so nice to reach out and touch her hair. It was so nice to feel so new with her, so shiny and chrome for whatever Valhalla he resided in.

A knock on the door.

“Nux?” Furiosa called from the other side. His head snapped towards the door, suddenly brought back to this world and not the one of this thoughts. “Are you in there?”

“Ye-yeah!” he called. He pushed the blankets aside, scrambling out of bed and searching for his pants. He'd dragged them in last night, and there they were, laying in a pile beside the bed. Shuffling them on and also hopping towards the door, he buckled his pants. He turned the knob and there she was.

Though she was not how she used to be.

Her blackened forehead was absent, replaced only by refreshed skin. She wore the same linen clothes Capable had, though her physique was much different-- stronger, harder. It was strange seeing her like this; she was always so hard, so tough, but now she breathed softly into offwhite linen. Her robotic arm was absent.

“Good morning,” she said, peering over his shoulder, presumably to search for Capable. He must have looked frazzled and freshly woken.

“Yeah, good morning,” Nux nodded. 

She must have known, he realized then, what happened between he and Capable. Should he be embarrassed? Was it shameful to her? He never knew what was out of bounds, everything the women expected so strange. 

“I need to talk to you, now,” she met his eyes then, giving up her search for Capable.

“Yeah, of course.”

He stepped out into the hallway with her.

“You have to see this,” she guided him to the stairwell, covered by a curtain that she pushed aside. He followed her down to the platform deck, overlooking the platform that had risen to accept them into the hightower. He heard chanting, commotion, loudness beneath them. Were the Wretched revolting? Were the devoted followers of Immortan Joe rioting at the new leadership?

No.

He looked down to a sea of black and white, bustling with fists raised and smiling faces. War Boys, his friends, at least the ones he had left. The repairboys, the sick ones, they were there, shouting and chanting.

“Nux! Nux! Nux!”

Nux's brow furrowed. When the crowd saw him peering from the rock ledge, they raised their hands into the sacred V8, pointed towards him in reverence.

“True Traitor! Dignitary Nux!”

“Shiny and Chrome!”

“Guide us to Valhalla!”

He swallowed. The Boys must be confused-- he couldn't guide anyone to Valhalla. He was just a War Boy like them, his blood running low, a transfusion needed soon. 

“They're looking for a God,” Furiosa called over the noise the Boys made, behind Nux. “They need someone to guide them. Someone that isn't Immortan.”

He craned his neck to look back at Furiosa, who returned his look with one of fierceness, seriousness. 

She wanted him to lead them.

“I-- I can't,” Nux swallowed. “I'm too sick.”

Furiosa nodded then, approaching him to put a hand on his shoulder.

“I don't think you really have a choice,” she grinned, the Boys under them calling and calling, look at me, he looked at me, True Traitor will you please-- Nux, Nux, Nux.

Nux sighed, looking back down at them. Furiosa was right, obviously they'd latched onto the idea of a War Boy being something more. Something more than battle fodder, a sacrifice and a means to and end. Nux was that something more, he lived in the hightower with the Sisters, he spoke to Furiosa and didn't have to bow his head to her, didn't have to sleep in the bunks with the rest of them. When news spread that Nux was one of the Dignitaries of Imperator Furiosa, they'd gathered and shouted, chanted, announcing their reverence for him, their respect. Their devotion.

All of which made Nux uncomfortable.

“Talk to them,” she insisted. She'd seen this kind of worship before. It was up to Nux to straighten it out.

Nux nodded, his belly stirring, anxious. He called to them, though, his voice drowned out by the cheers below him.

“Hey! Shaddup! He's tryin to talk!”

“Shut yer traps!”

Then it was silent.

“Hey,” he called, his voice echoing in the distance between he and them. “Uh, now that Immortan's dead, I get that you're all looking for someone to-- to guide you,” he copied Furiosa's words. “And I really want to help you. I'm not sure how, though.”

“There's no one to monitor the bloodbag exchange!”

“Where do we store spare parts? Immortan had the key!”

“Who'll make sure none of these morons fuck everything up?”

Nux smiled at that. They were right, Immortan was always the one to give the last say on the engines and the cars. 

He supposed he could do that.

“I'll help you, if you'll do one thing for me!” Nux called down, gripping the ledge.

“Anything, Dignitary!”

“I am no God, I'm no Immortan. I can't carry you to Valhalla, and I ask that you stop believing that I can!”

The Boys mumbled among themselves softly.

“You can't?”

“Then who can?”

“You carry yourselves,” Nux shouted. 

The Boys looked up at him in unison. Dozens of eyes on his, blue, green, brown. Silence. Suddenly, they erupted in cheer, fists raised, some V8 signals dotting the crowd. 

“Nux! Nux! Nux!”

Nux raised his fist with them, smiling. 

Furiosa placed her hand on his back, nodding.

“Go back to the garage! I'll be there in a minute,” Nux called, the boys clamoring over each other as his words were understood.

Nux turned then, only to meet the fiery redness that was his Capable. He felt his breath give way for a moment, seeing her smile and lean against the rock.

“Go get 'em, Dignitary,” she grinned. Her wet hair plastered to her shoulder, her slim frame under the linen clothes... glory be.

Nux rushed to her and, with a quick peck on her cheek, slid past her to glide down the stairs to the garage.

“He'll be fine,” Furiosa said having noticed Capable's tense body language. “No one will hurt him down there.”

She nodded, turning her back to walk upstairs, leaving Furiosa on the deck to watch Nux emerge from the bottom of the platform and kick up sand as he rushed to the garage.

–

The Dag fingered her belly, her sinewy fingers making small trails the the skin under her belly button. 

“Little schlanger in there,” she droned, “can you hear me?”

“It's not his fault he's there, Dag,” Cheedo murmured, turning the page of a book long forgotten.

“Or she,” Toast piped up. 

The women sat together, having been used to each other's presence and being comforted by it. The bedrooms of Dag and Toast were on this floor, the second one from the highest, where Nux and Capable and Furiosa stayed. Below them all was Cheedo's room, residing next to the library-- well, whatever measly thing it was that they called a library.

“I'd feel terrible if it were a she,” Dag continued staring at her navel. “She'd have to grow up like us.”

“No she wouldn't, she could be free. She could have children when she wanted to, no one's gonna lock her up.”

The Dag nodded then, her blonde hair dragging from her slim back. “She could be different, then.”

Capable emerged from the curtain, her red hair bouncing from her smiling face. The girls met her gaze, wondering about the cause of her unusually giddy mood.

“Furiosa assigned me to the Pups,” she explained, sitting with them. “She wants me to help the Nurturers care for them, play with them and stuff.”

The women fawned over it, it's so like you Capable, you'll be so good with kids, you'll do so well.

She joined Dag in feeling her belly, too soon to show, but soon enough for her to feel the growing life inside of her.


	2. Weeks Four, Five, Six

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Very emotional chapter here, I tried my best to really convey the emotions that would be flying left and right. There is one sentence that mentions miscarriage, so just a warning for that. You get a pregnancy feel, and YOU get a pregnancy feel, pregnancy feels for everyone!
> 
> Also be aware that I'm getting my information about pregnancy and babies from the Internet and also from my own experiences (well, my friend's, I've never been pregnant) but if there's anything inconsistent just let me know. Thank you!

**Week Four**

Capable ran with the Pups, chasing them, they chasing her. They were so vibrant, the Pups so young and innocent still. They'd latched on to Capable instantly, enamored with her bright hair and her soft skin, her kindness and compassion. They'd told her of their dreams, of wanting to be War Boys, of wanting to be Repair Boys, when she'd settle them in for a nap or for dinner. It was refreshing to be around such promising youth, most of them having no visible ailments yet.

She tumbled after them in the sand, pretending to be struck down by their imaginary weapons. They laughed and shouted, making the V8 with their tiny hands; they knew not what they idolized.

Ah.

She reached up to her chest, gripping her right breast. It hurt, she noticed, though she had taken false tumbles before. She's had the Pups sitting on her chest, she'd had them sit on her back as they played, but never before had she felt pain, soreness, in her breasts, her back.

Standing back up, her smile vanished, the Pups too quickly settling down.

“Are you okay, Ms. Capable?” one small voice piped up from below her. 

“Yeah, Tin, I'm fine,” she smiled down at the small boy under her. He smiled at that, the rest of the Pups clamoring to return to her. It would be time for bed soon, time for evening baths and showers. They'd hated it every night, but every night they listened to Capable, getting tucked into their bunks. Though she had put them to bed individually, she'd come to them every morning with them in a pile, blankets nestled in their little fists. Nux explained that it's just how it was, sleeping alone was a foreign concept to the Pups. Capable understood.

She returned to the hightower at nine, the desert sun just peeking out from the horizon, the bustle of the Citadel quieted as the darkness came. She'd wanted to see the stars again, but she was exhausted. Usually so, actually. She breathed heavier as she climbed the steps to her bedroom, her heart beating faster. She must have not eaten enough today, she thought, must have played too rough.

Capable swung open the door to her bedroom, wanting to collapse on the bed immediately. Nux should already be here, she thought, he's done in the garage at eight. She decided to worry about it later, the dull pain in her back and her breasts overtaking her mind. She nestled herself within the blankets, pulling them up to her neck and curling them in her fists.

Nux opened the door, clean, with linen pants on. He'd hated them so much, but Capable insisted on not bringing the dirty black ones he wore in the garage into the room. They hung, wet from their washing, outside.

Nux noticed Capable's heavy eyes, her frazzled hair. Was she alright? Is she sick? Have I been neglecting her? What happened?

Nux glided to the bedside, sitting on it where Capable's body bent at the hip. He placed a gingerly hand on her head, her eyes closing in appreciation at that. No fever.

“Are you feeling alright?” Nux brushed the hair from her face.

“Yeah, yeah... I just think my moontime is coming,” she muttered from beneath the comforter.

“Moontime?” he repeated, confused.

“It's... ah,” she grunted from the dull pain that radiated from her nipples. “It's part of a fertile woman's life... it means I can have babies.”

Nux's face flushed at that. He'd almost forgotten that, indeed, just a few weeks ago she was kept in the vault for that very purpose. Capable as a mother, he mused, would be a wonderful thing to see, considering that she was so good with the Pups.

“What is it, though? Are you hurting?”

“Yeah, it hurts, not for everyone but for me...” she seemed bitter about it. “My body puts a lot of work into preparing itself for a baby, so it's mad when there isn't one there. It has to... expel the preparations, it has to clean itself out so that when there is a baby, it's all new.”

Nux nodded along, Capable sitting up now.

“Women bleed, they bleed the preparations out.”

“You bleed out?” Nux seemed appalled. 

“Not enough to hurt us, it's just part of our lives. It'll probably happen tomorrow morning... I'm not usually this sore until the day before.”

Nux nodded. “Then you're fine? After tomorrow?”

Capable smiled. There was so much he didn't know outside of engine blocks and war paint. “No, it lasts for about a week, then again in about a month if I don't have a baby.”

Nux's eyes widened. “You... you bleed for a week? All the time?”

She nodded.

“You're alright, though?”

She nodded.

“And it happens again? After tomorrow it will happen again?”

She nodded.

Nux breathed out. He was amazed. “Do the rest of the Sisters do that? Are you all... all doing that all the time?”

She leaned into him this time. “Yeah, Nux. Well, not Dag, because she's pregnant. You don't bleed if you're pregnant, because the baby is there that time and doesn't need to.”

“That's amazing,” he chuckled. “It's amazing. You're amazing. You're like... you're like a warrior, bleeding in battle but you still carry on.”

She was charmed by his innocence and his admiration. She hated her time, she had such bad cramps and soreness-- it was messy and seemed unnecessary considering she didn't really want children right now. She wished she could tell her body to take a break, her womb won't be needing it, relax.

Capable turned out the light beside them as Nux crawled into bed with her.

Nux nestled in next to her. “Can I help at all?”

“No, Nux, you being here is enough,” she answered through the dark, the day's work taking its toll on the both of them. Exhaustion carried them both through to the dream space, unusually vibrant for Capable but dim for Nux.

–

She woke the next morning anticipating her need for extra rags, extra water, and extra breaks from the Pups so she could rest. But it hadn't come, her shorts pristine as they were before. Strange, she thought, her body had always been so informative to her. It must be the new surroundings, she told herself. It must be the time outside of the vault, rearranging her cycle.

Nux turned next to her, waking with her. They'd needed to start the day soon, the Boys just as rowdy as the Pups who would be waking hungry within the hour. Nux didn't particularly pay attention to wasted time, though, as he climbed above Capable placing small kisses along her face and her neck. She smiled. What a way to wake up, she thought. What a way to start the day.

Ah.

The pain in her chest had not subsided, she took note of. Nux noticed her sharp intake of breath. Had he hurt her? Was his hand on her hair, pulling it, like that one time a week ago? 

“Sorry,” she grumbled. “My chest still hurts.”

Nux bent down to place kisses along her breasts then, soft, barely there. He wanted to help, he wanted to do something. But there was nothing he could do.

After an intimate kiss, Nux climbed off of her, anxious to put his black canvas pants back on. Though he was different, he still had War Boy blood coursing through him, high octane, rough. He loved his time in the garage; he got to lead the Boys, he got to fix up cars and direct trade routes with Furiosa. He felt part of something bigger than himself, something stolen from him when he had failed Immortan one time too many.

Capable sat up, the pain in her back more pronounced. She must have picked one of the Pups up wrong, she thought, the pain would subside if she got moving. With a shower and a change of clothes, she began to descend the staircase.

What was that?

Her face perked up as she neared Dag's floor. That smell, it was sweet, it was floral. She inhaled deeply, the smell overtaking her. Curious, she pushed aside the curtain, the sweet smell now almost overwhelming. She met the eyes of the Dag, whose belly had finally begun to show the flourishing life within her. It was still surprising to Capable, the bulge usually belonging to Splendid.

“Good morning,” the Dag chimed, arranging some flowers she had grown in the greenhouse. She had been in charge of growing crops and plants and other green things; she was making the Citadel the Green Place.

“What's that smell?” Capable inquired, looking around the foyer.

“What do you mean?” the Dag answered, her hands coming to her sides as she stood straight.

There.

“It's-- It's the flowers,” Capable approached them but stopped when the smell was indeed too overpowering. “What kind are they?”

The Dag looked at her incredulously. “Lilacs,” she said, her tongue lingering too long on the “s”. “You could smell them all the way out there?”

Capable nodded. Was that strange? Did no one else?

“Huh,” the Dag smiled. “Well, you're free to take them with with if you'd like.”

“No, that's alright, I was just wondering... I've never smelled something so lovely before.”

“They are lovely, aren't they?”

–  
 **Week Five**

“Damn it!” she cried out, tears welling in her eyes. Curses flowed past her mumbling lips, her eyes focused on the floor.

Nux looked at her like he was a puppy she had kicked. She'd never yelled at him before, never even raised her voice. He was scared. Will she hate me now? Will she leave me to sleep in the bunks again?

He was ready to do anything to rectify what he had done.

“Capable, I...” he started, not daring to move.

“Stop! No,” she snapped at him, her eyes red and watery. “No.”

His throat constricted. It was just a mistake, he thought. Didn't she understand? Didn't she see that he didn't mean to?

“How did you even...” she trailed off, swallowing the tightness in her throat and reaching up to wipe the tears from her face. “How did you even do that?”

Nux felt the blood rush from his face, nervous, anxious. “I.. it just, it was an accident...”

“An accident?” she yelled again, forcing his arms to curl into his gut more, gripping his elbows. He sat on the bed, hunched, submissive.

“Ye-- yeah, it was... just...” he didn't know what else to say as she broke out in sobs, now. He wanted to comfort her but he knew if he moved she would snap and he's fall back down into the bed. He wanted her to stop crying, to stop being mad, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Forgive me, please.

Capable's habits had always seemed so strange to Nux. He'd never grown up around women, he didn't know why they braided each other's hair, he didn't know why they sang the songs they did... he didn't know why Capable was crying and yelling over the broken vase on the floor, the flowers strewn around it.

“You just had to carry it from one side of the room to the other!” she cried, pacing around it, the water pooling.

“It... I'm sorry,” he stuttered.

She rushed towards the bed then, something clicking inside her. Nux was afraid she would strike him, that she would punish him like his superiors had done before. He clenched his muscles, prepared for her fist, her teeth--

She plopped down on the bed next to him, face down in the pillow, soft cries wracking her body.

Nux felt slightly ashamed for assuming she would hurt him, but he knew little else and right now he felt like anything could happen.

He trembled as he reached up to place a tentative hand on the small of her back. She whined into the pillow, turning her head to meet his concerned gaze.

“Nux,” she breathed, her eyes wet. “Nux, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, please...”

He was distraught. What do I do? What does she want? Moments ago she was pushing him away from her, don't touch me, don't touch me. Can I touch her? Is that what she wants?

Yes, he decided, as he lay next to her to meet her gaze. It was softer now, sniffles trembling her body. 

“I'm sorry, Capable, I-”

“No, Nux... you didn't do anything wrong, Nux... shhhh...” she herself quieted down. “I'm sorry Nux, I shouldn't have yelled at you. I shouldn't-- I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me...”

Nux nodded into the pillow, his hand rubbing her back slowly. He understood. There were many a time he found himself overcome by even the most ridiculous of emotions, pumped by adrenaline, motivated by nitro.

“It's alright... are you-- are you mad at me? I can clean the--”

“No, no Nux, I'm not mad. I'm sorry,” she started crying again, though it was the opposite of what Nux had wanted. His Capable was upset, she was crying, he caused it, though she said she wasn't mad now, she was screaming moments before. He didn't know how to handle it, how to handle her, right now.

She nestled into his chest, her cries becoming shorter and sparse now, Nux's soft movements comforting her. He stuck with what he knew best, what she responded well to. He didn't press for anything, he didn't speak, only felt Capable's eyelashes against his shoulder and her eyes dry.

“Nux, I'm... I'm real sorry...” she looked up now. “I don't... I really don't know what happened to me.”

“I get it,” he uttered.

“You do?”

“Yeah,” he smiled. “So many fights in the bunks were because of things like that, just some... weird bursts over nothing,” he paused. “Are you... are you keeping anything in? Like you tell me not to?”

He'd been alluding to his emotional releases that he had with her. She'd seen his pent up frustrations, his anger, and encouraged him to confide in her. It had taken work, little by little, but she learned so much about him and his outbursts were fewer and fewer.

“No,” she answered. “No, I'm just-- you remember the moontime? That I told you about?”

He nodded. “Is it happening?”

“No,” she shook her head. “No, I think the new surroundings really messed something up inside me, the Fury Road, the stress...”

He stroked the valley between her shoulder blades. “Oh.”

“Sometimes we get really emotional like that,” she continued. “Like, it's not controllable, it just happens. My moontime must be really soon, now, if I'm getting like that.”

Nux felt her hair in his fingers. “Well, it's alright. We're alright. You're gonna be alright.”

She nodded into his skin, relieved to feel her mind come back to her. That had never happened before, she was never that emotional, never enough to yell at Nux like she had. It had always just been a general cloud that fogged over her for the day, a small cry over playing the wrong note at the piano. Strange, she thought. Her cycle must really be disrupted.

After a moment like that, Capable cleaned up the vase and the flowers, refusing help from Nux. She could get another vase, she could get more water, but she couldn't take back what she'd done. She kissed Nux before descending back to the Dag to get more of those wonderful lilacs.

–  
 **Week Six**

“Oh, Glory be...” she moaned into the cold rags on her head. Her head, glory, her head, the pain, why won't it go away? 

Toast chilled more rags next to Capable's bed, always ready to adjust her blankets or offer soothing words. 

“It's alright, Capable,” she rubbed the other woman's arm with her thumb as Capable's hands rested on her face, “I've been there too during my time.”

“That's the thing,” she said, muffled under the rags, “my time hasn't come yet.”

Toast's brow furrowed. “Soon, then?”

“It was supposed to come a while back,” she removed the rags now, her skin slick. “But it hasn't. The stress from the Fury Road must have really switched stuff around in there, huh?”

Toast looked to the ground. Capable had never had headaches during her time, she'd had cramps and soreness but not headaches like Toast had.

“Well, Capable...” she began. “When was the last time, um-- when, when had Immortan...?”

Capable looked at her now, revulsion in her eyes. The idea of pregnancy hadn't even crossed her mind, there was no way...

Except there was.

“Glory, Toast... Toast...” her voice cracked. “Just a day before we... we escaped. Before we went with Furiosa, Toast...”

Toast raised her eyebrows. Capable's eyes were wet with tears, then. She thought she was new. She thought it was a new beginning here, a new time, a new life. Now she carried her old life with her, inside her, if she was indeed pregnant.

“Now, now, hey...” Toast offered. “We don't know for sure. Give it a few more days before we can make any conclusions like that.”

Capable nodded, the pain in her head revolting against it, the cold rags returning to her face. Her damned chest still hurt, too. She cursed her body. Whatever was happening to it, she felt betrayed by it.

“And um,” Toast peeped, “you and Nux...”

Capable's heavy breathing slowed. 

“The first night we came back, did... did anything happen?”

Capable's eyes opened under the rags.

Glory be.

“Toast, yeah, yeah we... we did, but... but he didn't do it inside, he just... he pulled out, Toast. There's no way,” she said with despair.

Toast nodded, unseen by Capable.

A soft knock on the door, then it opened.

“I have something that might help,” the Dag entered, carrying soft green things with her.

She knew she had walked in on something with Toast's concerned face and with Capable not moving the rags to meet her. She didn't want to prod, though, and only offered explanation.

“If you eat these leaves, they might help with the pain,” she plucked some and left them with Toast. She left one plant, then, with a final glance and goodbye, well wishes, she left, the door closing behind her.

“Leaves won't do anything,” Capable grumbled from under the rags. “I'm carrying a little fucking monster.”

“We don't know that, Capable...” Toast offered, though there really wasn't any other explanation.

The rags were replaced, received gratefully.

The door swung open.

“Capable!” Nux rushed to her side, kneeling, regarding Toast with confusion.

“Hi, Nux,” she lifted the rags from her face with a smile. 

Seeing his face twisted her stomach. How would she tell him? How would she tell him that she carried Immortan's baby? How could she do that to him, who was so ready, so excited, to start their lives together new?

“I heard you were sick, I'm sorry, I came here as fast as I could find someone to replace me, and it's real busy today, we--”

“It's alright, Nux. I'm fine. Just a headache is all.”

“Is that part of the moontime?” he asked. Toast looked at him with a small grin and furrowed brows. He'd known about that?

She swallowed, the guilt consuming her. “Ye---yeah, Nux. But it's not here yet, I have to wait.”

He nodded. “I'll stay here with you, Capable. I can wait with you.”

She shook her head into the pillow. “There's no need, I'm fine, really, all the sisters are helping. You're needed down there.”

“I'm needed here, if you say so.”

He was so doting to her, so involved. She swallowed at the thought of that being ruined, of him being disgusted at her pregnancy, the child growing inside her Immortan's. 

“No, Nux, go back to the garage.”

He nodded, his hands still on hers. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, Yes Nux.”

He stood then, looking to Toast for answers. There were none.

“I love you,” he whispered into her hair. He'd said it the first time weeks ago, yet he used it so sparingly it sent shivers down her spine every time he said it. She smiled, sighing.

“I love you too, Nux,” she responded. He followed her gaze and straightened, then turned and left, the soft click of the door following.

She cried, then. Her face twisted, ugly, pained. She did, she loved him. She didn't want to bear Immortan's child. She didn't know if she wanted to bear any child at all; all she knew was that she loved Nux, and with this child, he wouldn't love her. He would resent her, she thought, he would be angry.

Toast consoled her, stroking her hair and whispering soothing words.

“I can't tell him!” she burst. “I can't tell him. How can I? How can he...”

“We don't know anything for sure,” Toast reassured.

But Capable did.

–

Capable could barely move from the bed. She was so tired, so tired. She missed the Pups, she missed their smiles and their laughs, but she just... couldn't do anything. She could only sleep, but her racing thoughts kept her from doing even that.

Furiosa sat next to her, the needle that was in Capable's arm now skillfully depositing blood into the vial Furiosa's bionic arm held.

“Capable,” she said softly, breaking the silence that consumed Capable's being, “we'll know for sure in about a day, alright? We'll make sure this isn't you being sick.”

“I'm sick either way,” she mumbled, barely finding the energy to move. “I'm sick with the bastard's baby or I'm sick with whatever else.”

Furiosa swallowed. “You and Nux, the first night you were back--”

“He pulled out.”

“That doesn't guarantee anything.”

“It doesn't?”

“No, Capable. That's not foolproof. The question is... even if you are pregnant, and even if it is Nux's... do you want it? Is that what you want?”

The question mulled over Capable's mind. Nux's baby? It was possible? It was possible she didn't carry Immortan's baby? The possibility gave her hope, eased her thoughts.

“Yeah, yeah,” she nodded weakly. “I'd want it if it were Nux's.”

Furiosa nodded. “We can't find that out for sure until it's born.”

“I can't tell him.”

“Why not?”

“He's just a boy, Furiosa. Even if it's his I doubt he'll be excited. He was so concerned about not breeding me, I doubt he ever wanted kids in the first place.”

“Well, that's the risk he took. The risk you both took,” she sealed the vial into a black box.

Capable nodded. She just wanted some peace from this, some peace from her thoughts.

“I think you underestimate him, though,” Furiosa stood, the black box in hand. “I think he'd be elated.”

Capable followed her with her eyes as she exited the room.

–

She expelled into the toilet, heaving, her hair falling into her face only to be moved by her clammy hand.

“Capable?” he muddled from the doorway into the bathroom. “Glory be, are you alright?” His morning grogginess was swept out from under him.

Capable didn't look up to meet him, looming only drearily into the toilet bowl. He reached around her to gather her hair, another wave of nausea claiming her.

“Capable, I'm scared...” he admitted. “I'm so scared, are you alright?”

She looked at him now, tears forming from the bile that wreaked havoc on her throat. “I'm... Nux, I'm fine, please...”

“No you're not! Capable, look at you, no you're not, please, you have to get more help,” he combed her hair into a tighter ponytail, grasping it lightly.

She wanted to speak again, but was interrupted by another wretch, another heave, and another wave of bile rushing its way into the toilet.

“Please, I'm staying today, I'm staying with you,” his voice shook. He'd seen death. He'd seen death of the people he loved and cared about, Valhalla or not. He'd seen sickness take even the most valiant.

She nodded. She wanted him there, this time, no matter what the truth was. Her chest hurt, her stomach hurt, her head was occasionally pined against by nails, she was exhausted... she needed him, though she didn't want to. She didn't want him to know.

“This is more than your moontime, Toast said,” he went on when she was silent.

“What else did she say?” Capable felt guilt and worry now, making everything worse.

“She said you could be really, really sick,” he swallowed, his voice shaking. “And that today we'll know for sure.”

Capable closed her eyes, her nose running and tears dropping. She was right, though she wanted to desperately to deny it. Today was the day of truth, Furiosa had promised.

The day she would be alone again.

“I have to clean up,” she grumbled into the bowl, then picked herself up. She wiped her mouth off with her hand and flushed with the other, Nux dropping his hair and his eyes following hers. His mouth hung open slightly, his brows furrowed, his eyes scanning her body and her face. 

She turned the lever to start her shower, bending down to grasp Nux's head in a gingerly embrace as he rose.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry...

–

Nux held her hand as she laid in bed, her lids heavy despite her stress. She swallowed the bile that rose and fell, Nux at the ready to help her, constantly stroking her, getting her water, offering food though she denied it. 

How could she get sick? This was supposed to be our new life. I'm supposed to be the sick one, I'm supposed to be the one... This isn't fair, this is too cruel even for the most spiteful Gods. Finally happy, only to have it snatched from me.

Furiosa opened the door slowly, holding the black box she held before. Capable met her gaze, horrendously neutral. She stepped over to her, careful, Nux watching her with bated breath. Furiosa knelt down next to him, laying her organic hand over Capable's covered leg.

A moment.

Then, Furiosa only nodded.

Capable's eyes widened.

No.

No, it couldn't be true.

It couldn't, this couldn't be taken from her yet. This life, this love... it couldn't be taken.

Her face twisted in despair, her eyes filling with tears.

“No, no, no,” she repeated, Nux confusedly looking on, his eyes switching between the women, concerned, his gut twisted.

“What? What's the matter with her?” he asked Furiosa who maintained her gaze with Capable. Her tears began to fall, mingling with the sweat she'd accumulated from being too hot from stress. She let out whimpers, desperate cries, no, no, no.

“Furiosa!” he cried out then, his body trembling, his eyes wetting and his voice crackling. “What--”

“She's pregnant, Nux.”

Capable cried out then, louder, stinging Nux's ringing ears.

“P-pregnant?” his lips burned.

Furiosa swallowed, reaching up to stroke Capable's wretched face.

“Capable, you're...” Nux started, unable to finish. Furiosa looked at him, her brows furrowed. Something more was wrong. There was something else happening, what else didn't he know?

“Nux,” Capable managed between breaths, “Nux, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, please-- you can't, you can't go...”

“Where would I go?” he let his own tears fall, something he'd never really done before. He'd always been the first to swipe them away. 

Capable's eyes widened. Furiosa stepped aside, giving them space, but remaining in the room.

“Capable, where would I go?” he repeated. “Why would I go? What--”

She let out a cry she held in, then breathed, trying to slow her breath, trying to speak. “Nux, it-- it's Immortan's.”

It hit him heavy, then, why she was so upset. The thought ravaged his gut, his head, his eyes moving to study the woman he loved before him.

“We don't know that for sure, Capable,” Furiosa interjected. “It's the most probable, but it isn't for sure.”

Nux relaxed at that. And what was the alternative? That--

“Glory be,” he let out a breath. “If it isn't Immortan's...”

“Then it's yours,” Furiosa said behind him.

“Nux, please... you—you can't, I'm sorry,” she shook, her face falling into her hands.

Nux moved to sit next to her then, his arm wrapping around her shoulder. “Capable,” he whispered into her hair. She still rocked with cries, hiding her face. She was so ashamed, she was so ashamed.

“Capable,” he said louder this time. “Capable, I'm not going anywhere.”

She seemed to calm with that, the hitching in her breaths fewer and fewer for a few minutes as silence permeated the room.

“Nux, you-- you don't, you don't have to do what you don't want to,” she peered out from under her hands, finally settling them on her lap.

“What do you mean?” he brushed her hair from her face, tucking it behind her ear.

“You don't... Nux, glory... you don't have to stay. If it's Immortan's it's not your responsibility,” she gasped out.

Nux reeled. What was she saying? That she wanted him to leave? No, he knew, she was scared. She was scared, just like he was. 

“Capable,” he smiled, her eyes looking up to meet his. “I don't want to go anywhere.”

Her eyes searched his face for any comprehension of what he'd said. His tearful smile confirmed, though, that yes, he knew what he said.

Furiosa smiled, her own tears forming. It seemed like not too long ago where she felt the panic of being pregnant as well, though it was many years ago. And it was many years ago that she lost it.

“You... you want this? You want a baby?” she blinked.

“If it's with you, of course I do,” his eyes wet again. 

Her smile was incredulous. He wanted to stay? He wanted to be a father to a baby that might not even be his? He wanted to be with her on this?

She cried again, though now they were pleasant, soaking into Nux's linen pants below her.


	3. Weeks Nine to Forty to Birth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! This was so weird to write, I really hope this is what people are looking for in a pregnancy fic. Lots of emotions here.
> 
> Some warnings for this chapter: graphic miscarriage, graphic birth
> 
> If you're more interested in Nux and Capable raising the baby and want to skip the pregnancy to go right to mommy and daddy wonderfullness that will be next chapter :)
> 
> I'm not someone naturally interested in children so researching the process has been very enlightening. Thank you for reading :)

The women clamored outside, the news spreading from Furiosa. They weren't sure if they should celebrate or mourn; was this the creation of life or a destruction of one? Furiosa told them about Nux, and how she rested how, sleep coming to her after many nights of laying awake with anxiety. They needed to care for her, now. They needed to make sure she ate, make sure she got enough water, and make sure she wasn't too rough with the Pups. But for now, she slept, Nux by her side.

“He's taking it better than I thought,” Toast mentioned. 

“What do you mean?”

“He... I don't know, he's a War Boy. And now he's all settled down. Doesn't that seem strange to anyone?”

“What other option does he have?” Dag looked up.

“He could... he could just leave.”

“You think he's like that?” Furiosa added.

“No!” she was defensive. “No, just... it's unlike a War Boy, is all.”

“He's not a normal War Boy, Toast,” Cheedo said, slightly miffed. 

Quiet then.

“Dag, you're gonna help the most,” Cheedo broke the silence. “You know how she feels.”

The Dag nodded, running her hand along her belly. She had only been at ten weeks when they escaped, now she was at sixteen, her belly slightly, barely extended to accommodate the new life. It was still so small, so new inside her.

“Everyone is going to have to try, just like we do with Dag, and emotionally support her,” Furiosa was serious then. “And Nux.”

Comforting men through a pregnancy was a foreign concept to the women. What did he have to be comforted for? He didn't carry it, he didn't sacrifice his health for the baby.

Sensing their confusion, Furiosa continued. “He's going to support a baby that probably isn't his, and is instead Capable's rapist's. Imagine how that must feel.”

They knew then, their eyes scattering around the room. The subject of Immortan being a rapist was usually alluded to, and they knew Furiosa was serious when she actually outright sad it. Yes, they would support Nux too.

The bedroom door opened to the foyer, then. Nux stepped out, his eyes still red, his clay rubbed off from his face. The women were silent, his tired eyes meeting theirs. 

“You, uh,” he looked at Furiosa now. “How did you know? That she's... pregnant?”

Furiosa stepped towards him and in a rare act of physical compassion, wrapped her arm around his shoulders.

“Her blood told us,” she explained. “You'll have to ask Remedy for the specifics, but...” she trailed off.

“And her blood can't tell you whose it is?”

The women's hearts hurt.

“No, Nux,” Furiosa confirmed. He looked at her; he was so tired. She could see he had been crying. “After the baby is born we can know, but for now, no.”

“Is what you told Capable what you really feel, Nux?” Furiosa led him to the couch, Toast moving to accommodate him. “Is this what you want?”

He swallowed, feeling too many eyes on him. “I'm... I'm more worried about it, if it's mine.”

The women were confused.

“I'm-- I'm sick, you know. I'm sick,” he repeated, the thought obviously bothering him.

“We don't know if you were born with it, though,” Furiosa was the only one who dared to speak. “If you got sick from living in the wasteland, the baby will be fine. We can give it clean air.”

Nux perked at that. “It'll be okay? It won't be sick?”

“If you weren't born with it.”

“I don't know either way.”

“Well, then we'll have to wait.”

“How long?”

“Nine months, about.”

His eyes widened and his jaw dropped. “That's almost a year!”

The Dag giggled. 

“Yeah, it is. It takes a long time to grow a baby,” Furiosa returned her arm to her side.

He stared down at the floor. “She's sleeping. She's real quiet, too. No words like she sometimes makes when she dreams.”

“She should sleep. She's going to be treated a bit differently now, Nux,” Cheedo interjected.

“How?”

“Well, we have to be very gentle with her. She might have to relax with the Pups more instead of playing, we'll have to cook special--”

“What can I do?” he was anxious.

The women smiled. How had they underestimated him?

“You have to support her, Nux. She's going to go through so many changes, her body will change. Mostly her mind. She's going to need you there for her,” Toast said.

“I'll find a replacement for the garage, for the Repair Boys,” he breathed, raspy, dogged. “I'll be with her, I want to help.”

“You'll do great, Nux,” the Dag droned. “I can feel it on you.”

Nux nodded to the women, standing to return to the bedroom.

The women shared knowing smiles. 

–

Week Nine

“Again?” Nux asked, watching Capable put the book she read to him down and push herself off the bed to go to the bathroom.

“Yeah, sorry,” she said before closing the door behind her.

She had spent the day with the Pups, explaining to them that one of the other Nurturers would help them play now that she needed to be careful. They were disappointed; she hated to see their little souls crushed, and offered to read them a story that day. She was too tired to run, very dizzy. She hated the dizziness.

She returned to Nux flipping through the pages of the book. He couldn't read very well, and he enjoyed hearing her voice so melodic as it flowed through the words. 

“You don't have to be sorry,” he opened the book to the page they were on.

She smiled as she returned to him, snuggling under the blankets and letting Nux's head rest on her shoulder. She began to read again, though her thoughts were elsewhere. Nux noticed the lack of emotion behind her words, looking up to meet her gaze. She stopped reading.

“How do you feel?” he asked. 

She closed her eyes for a moment, appreciating him asking. “Tired and dizzy. Every time I stand up, I'm dizzy.”

“What's 'dizzy'?” he asked, more concerned than he should be.

“Hm, well,” she wasn't sure how to approach it. “Have you ever hit your head real hard, or spun around too much and tried to look straight?”

Nux smiled. “Yeah, one time I fell from the suspension and almost split my head right open. But I just walked it off, but it did feel funny.”

She was slightly concerned about the story, but knew Nux was a tough man, his past only helping him to build who he is today. “Well, it's like that. It gets harder to see sometimes, and my head spins.”

Nux nodded. “Is that normal? Are you alright?”

“Remedy said it is,” she grinned. “But what does a doctor know?”

Nux chuckled with her, enjoying the feeling of happiness. Silence then, neither having the motivation to pick up the book again. She moved it to the bedside table.

“Nux,” she nestled further into the blankets, Nux following and placing his hand on her leg, “you can go back to the garage if you want. I'm feeling alright, and Remedy says that the baby's doing great from what she can tell.”

Nux's blue eyes narrowed. “Do you want me to go?”

“No, no it's not about me,” she defended. “It's about you. You're still Nux, the War Boy. I understand if you're getting restless here with the women when I'm gone.”

“I'm helping around,” he clarified. “I'm helping Toast make food for you, helping Dag with... the green stuff, helping Cheedo with--”

“I know, I know,” she interrupted. “But you're a person too. You shouldn't give that up just for me.”

“It's not just you anymore.”

The words lingered deep in the room.

“You're right. It isn't.”

–

Week Thirteen

Nux ran his hand along her belly, one hip to the next, marveling at the small bump that had developed. It was barely there, he really had to feel, but it showed promise. It was life. Capable relaxed, feeling his hand there.

Today with the Pups, she had taken a stumble. A real one, to the children's dismay. She'd gotten caught in her own ankles, falling to her knees. She was fine, though, she insisted from the interrogation of the Sisters and Nux. Furiosa stopped by to make sure everything was alright, then attended to her business. She had so much of it, running the Citadel.

They heard clamoring outside the door but paid no heed. Not until they heard a sharp “help!”

Capable and Nux opened the door, hearing the cries from below. The Dag. They rushed down the stairs and pushed aside the curtain. Help, help, please. Her bedroom door was open.

She laid in her bed, writhing, her fists dug into the bedding. She looked to Capable who rushed to her side. “Please, please... get Remedy.”

Capable nodded to Nux, who understood and rushed to the stairway. The Dag cried out again, reaching for Capable's hand and, when she felt it in her palm, squeezed. Was she having contractions? No, it was too early, there's no way. 

“Capable,” her normally soothing voice now strained, pained. “Capable, what...”

“What hurts?” Capable asked, panicked yet trying to remain as calm as she could. It wouldn't help to fluster Dag any more by panicking.

The Dag only groaned, writhed. Capable, not knowing what else to do, pushed back the blankets that covered the Dag's torso.

Glory.

Capable shook then, the amount of blood staggering. The Dag was crying now, tears flowing down her usually ethereal face.

Remedy and Nux rushed into the room, both staggering from the sight before them. Nux covered his mouth with his hand and remained in the doorway. Capable was moved out of the way by Remedy, the only person who would have any idea what to do in this situation. Capable kept holding the Dag's hand, trying to tell her calming things, but her voice shook and cracked.

“Dag, I'm sorry, I have to do this, alright? I'll be right back,” Remedy announced, her brown hair snapping behind her as she turned from her to return to her office for supplies she didn't know she'd need.

“Capable,” the Dag cried out, “Capable, you... ah”

Capable shushed her, it's alright, she'll be back, it's going to be okay.

Nux only stared, not knowing what else to do. The Dag never looked at him, only Capable before squeezing her eyes shut.

Remedy returned, pushing Nux out of her way.

“Leave,” she commanded him. She was never very warm, and Nux obeyed knowing this. He stepped outside her room and shut the door behind him.

He only heard the Dag's muffled screams and groans, then, after what seemed like forever, quiet.

He was hunched up outside the room, not wanting to leave. He wanted to stay with her, to make sure she was okay. She hadn't seemed okay, she didn't seem okay at all. What was happening? Why was she bleeding? Capable had said that women don't have their moontime when they're pregnant. Capable said that moontimes don't hurt. The Dag seemed so hurt. Did she lie to him?

He stayed there, hugging his knees, as the other Sisters gathered, Furiosa included. They were worried, asking him questions, how is she, what happened, is she okay, only answered by I don't know, I don't know, I don't know.

Remedy finally emerged from the room, closing it behind her. She looked to their eyes, though theirs trailed only to her hands: bloody. Cheedo began to cry, softly, but audible.

They all knew.

Everyone except Nux.

“What...” Nux began, but didn't want to continue. “Is she okay?”

Remedy looked at him. Poor soul, so innocent, she thought. What an idiot, she thought.

“Can I talk to the women?” she asked.

Nux looked at her then swallowed.

“Whatever you tell us, you can tell him,” Furiosa defended. Nux looked to her, thank you.

Remedy raised her eyebrows. Fine.

“I imagine her time on the Fury Road was too much during the development of the fetus,” she began, the women and Nux listening intently. “It was a very late miscarriage, but she was induced, and now... everything is as good as it could be.”

Induced? What did that mean? What's a miscarriage? Where is the baby? Is The Dag alright?

Nux asked none of those questions, knowing not to because the women were crying and mourning and sniffling. He just didn't understand.

Remedy sent her best regards as she left, her medical equipment needing a cleaning and a restocking. Oxytocin was hard to come by, she was lucky to have had it now.

The women were silent, the door unmoving. 

“I...” Nux began, looking especially to Furiosa who was so patient with him when he asked questions. He'd asked about Capable's mood swings, her soreness, everything. And she always answered him.

Catching her eyes, he continued. “What happened?”

“She lost the baby, Nux,” Furiosa explained. “She couldn't keep it inside of her, and it's not with us anymore.”

Nux's jaw dropped. The baby... was dead? Now? He'd heard her screams, he'd heard the silence. He didn't know how to handle the information, but he did again, against the wall where he had remained before.

What if that happens to Capable? The Dag was farther along than she is, what if Capable is hurt like that? If the baby is Immortan's, then she was pregnant during her time on the Fury Road, right? Or does it not happen right away?

Nux's thoughts raced, only to be interrupted by the door opening slowly. He looked up to see Capable, her eyes red, legs shaky. He stood to see her, though her eyes were tired and dead.

“She's sleeping,” was all she could say.

–

Capable, after a shower, climbed into bed with Nux, the mood solemn and heavy. They'd both needed to rest, to begin healing just the the Dag did.

It was only after the lights went out did Capable hear soft cries next to her.

She turned on the lights again to see Nux with his palms to his eyes, his mouth pouted into a grimace, his chest heaving. She sat up to wrap her arm around him, much like he had the many nights that she woke up crying for no real reason. She stroked his head, hair growing again, patchy and uneven. He let out little breaths every so often.

“Capable,” he choked out eventually, “what if that happens to you? What if--”

Capable hushed him, his hands shaking. She moved to pull his hands down, caressing his face as he cried, he was so scared, she knew. She was scared too.

“It could happen to any of us,” she said, he voice soft and slightly overshadowed by Nux's heavy breathing. 

“I couldn't... Capable, how...” he tried to piece his thoughts together but found himself struggling to do so, everything mostly a jumbled mess.

She stroked his head, the motion soothing him. 

“Relax,” she whispered into his ear, squeezing him closer to her. “It's all you can do.”

Nux nodded, sniffling a few times more, then looked in her eyes before closing his.

–

Week Eighteen

Capable breathed out, quick and forceful, through her teeth. It was hot, the knot she tied giving her no leave, sweat accumulating. She placed her hand on her lower belly to wipe the sweat off, not grown much but still distended from her usual self. If you didn't know better, you'd think she was just eating well.

Tap.

Her hand jumped back, not expecting to feel the tapping against her palm. So she wasn't going crazy, she thought, it was moving around in there. She'd felt it some rare nights, movement.

She giggled. It was really happening, wasn't it? She was pregnant. It's alive. It's kicking her from the inside.

–

Nux was amazed to feel it too, waiting patiently at night with his hand over her belly for the kick, kick, kick. He'd giggled, actually giggled, the first time he felt it, amazed that such a thing could even happen.

“Don't hurt her while you're in there,” he murmured to it. Capable caught him mumbling to it all the time, telling it stuff about engines and, most recently, how beautiful you're gonna be because your mommy is so beautiful.

–

Week twenty-five

“Glory, Capable...” Nux admired from the bed, Capable having just risen and stumbling towards the bathroom.

“What?” she rubbed the sleep from her eyes.

“You're so... big now,” he smiled, his eyes soft and focused on her belly.

Capable was acutely aware of how big she was; every day it seemed there was a new pain to deal with, a new crack and moan. She giggled lightly, though, Nux's boylike eyes still amazed that women did such things, that she could still move and be Capable and not just an incubator. He was always the first to offer his hand, help, even when really unnecessary. Capable wouldn't admit it to him, but sometimes it was rather annoying, even if he was just meaning well. She'd appreciated his help and his doting, it did give her a crutch when she needed it.

“Yeah, I sure feel it,” he chided lightly. She had to explain her pains to Nux every time he asked, or he would get worried. He'd gotten assertive about stretchmarks, having not seen them before and with their scary redness he thought, surely there must be something wrong. Nope, she would explain, just her body accommodating her growing belly. This time she noticed her hips were sore, another pain to tack on to the awkwardness of carrying the baby with her.

She was glad for it, though. She was glad for the pain. For the first time since knowing for sure, she anticipated the baby and thought fondly of it instead of fearfully.

–

Week thirty-two

She groaned into the pillow, the coolness relieving her hot skin. She was outside with the Pups only moments ago, watching them play and roughhouse, when the sun became too much. She resided back to her room, her belly protruding the linen dress she wore, and rested on the bed.

This was sometimes too much. Remedy had checked on her almost every week, running her hands over Capable's belly. There were so stethoscopes or ultrasounds in the wasteland-- Medical technology was far behind where it could be, a fact that Remedy would interject into every conversation. Remedy told her every week though, you're doing well, everything is normal, if you need to rest do it, alert me if anything happens.

Cheedo entered the room with some berries and water, still slightly amazed at how time seemed to have passed. The Citadel was in great shape compared to before, so many people were healing and thriving. It was so beautiful to see Furiosa's leadership flourish, forming the Citadel into what it deserved to be.

“Thank you,” Capable smiled. “I just need some food and water and I'll be fine.”

Cheedo sat on the bed next to Capable as she snacked. “I wanted to talk to you, actually.”

Capable swallowed but didn't take another bite.

“I found some books,” she began. “Well, more like records really, about Immortan Joe and the Sisters. All sorts of things about them. Mostly medical stuff, though.”

Capable bit into a strawberry. They were always her favorite.

“I showed them to Remedy yesterday, and she said she'd look over them and she did, yeah, and well, I mean...”

“What is it, Cheedo?” Capable was worried. Was there proof that Immortan Joe was carrying some genetic disease that would affect her baby? Did the bastard curse his own bloodline despite his greatest efforts to bless it?

“The Dag was the last to get pregnant from him, right?”

A look from Capable.

“For sure.”

Then she nodded.

“Well... when we saw Splendid's files, it was strange because it was marked with a weird black little doodle sort of thing, I'd show you but Remedy has it. And on Immortan Joe's file, there was the same black squiggle for the Dag, but when we looked at your file and mine and Toast's... there was no black squiggle.”

“What does that mean?” Capable wondered why she was telling her this.

“Well I asked the Dag about it. Apparently, before... well,” she cleared her throat, “there was a weird vial she saw, she didn't know what it was but he was adamant about it being kept warm, in the dark.”

Capable nodded again, still not knowing where Cheedo was going with this.

“Remedy says it could be 'artificial insemination', and I didn't know what that meant but she said that Immortan must have 'saved' some of his, uh... his sperm, and then used that on the Dag and Splendid, but not with you or me, for whatever reason.”

Artificial insemination? Capable was still confused. Why did any of this matter?

“So, he's been... non-virile for a while, then,” Cheedo smiled, leaning into Capable.

Oh.

OH.

“You're saying,” Capable wanted to clarify, “that because of these little black squiggles, that it somehow proves that... my baby can't be his?”

“Well, was there like, a vial at all? Was he real worried about it?”

“No, no he just... he came in that night... and...”

“Well then, I'll ask Remedy; it's just a hunch, but wouldn't that be something?”

Capable's stomach did flutter, but she tried not to get her hopes up. She'd been there before-- hope was dangerous, all it led to was pain or disappointment.

Cheedo collected the cleared plate from Capable's hands. 

“How is the Dag?” she breached the subject.

“She struggled,” Cheedo was quieter then. “She didn't want to talk to you about it, though.”

Capable was hurt by that, though she understood. She saw how the Dag had shrunk from her when she waddled into the room, how she avoided her gaze and avoided looking at her. She'd said it was for the best, the bloodline now cut shorter, but she had grown attached uncontrollably. It was difficult, the women knew, offering their shoulders for her though she refused.

Cheedo brushed Capable's hair from her face, knowing she was feeling better after some food and rest.

Nothing would come of the new discovery, solidifying Capable's decision to push hope as far away from herself as she could.

–

Nux held her hand, clammy, scared. She was gritting her teeth, groaning, her hair sticking to her forehead. She said she was fine, she was fine, but she wasn't. He called for Remedy despite the daggers Capable stared at him. He whispered sweetness to her, trying to help, anything to help. Was she okay?

Remedy rushed into the room, her supplies jumbling in her arms. She rushed to Capable's side, asking her what was wrong, checking for blood, feeling her belly.

“It's... it's fine,” she insisted. “Splendid had them too.”

Remedy calmed then, meeting Nux's wide eyes with her own. “Nux,” she smiled then, “she's fine, she's fine.”

“How?” Nux breathed, Capable's grip on his hand weakening. She was coming down now, coming down, the needles in her belly easing, the fist releasing.

“It's normal,” Remedy kept her hand on Capable's belly. “She's very far along, it's normal to have contractions. She's fine, you did good.”

Nux nodded, Capable's smile returning to her face, sweaty. That was a bad one. She'd had smaller ones, but this time... it was too much. 

Remedy thanked Nux for being attentive, gathering her equipment, more orderly this time. Capable squeezed his hand, the war paint having rubbed off. He'd been spending some time with the Boys, ordering them when they needed it, with Capable's insistence. She was fine, she said, she would get help if she needed it, don't worry, go where you're needed.

Nux's breathing slowed with hers, helping her back up to her feet.

–

Week thirty-six

Furiosa gathered her things, watching over the three vehicles that approached the Citadel from Gas Town. A shipment of guzzoline, in exchange for one shipment of water, routine, easy. The Boys would have everything go smoothly, it wasn't the time for adrenaline and chrome, it was time for business. They knew it, but were rowdy nonetheless.

Nux was at the second level of the garage, helping the pulley Boys drop the Exporter from the third level. His muscles ached, the rope burning his palms. But it needed to be done.

The Exporter was at the export gate, the water getting hitched to its hull as he wiped the sweat from his brow. Two Defenders positioned themselves next to the Exporter, the garage opening now, anticipating the exchange. The Gas Town boys hung from the hull of their rig, reaching out to announce their own Defenders to heighten their arms. Both parties were just being safe, the War Boys doing the same on the back of their Defenders. You cooperate, or you die and we steal your shipment, and you can't do anything about it because you broke the trade agreements. It was understood. 

The guzzoline was detached, attached to the docking bay. Their Defenders would follow the Citadels' back to Gas Town, where they would do the same with the water tanker. With everything clear, Nux raised his fist, pumped three times; it was go time.

The Exporter revved its engine, the Defenders following. The Gas Town vehicles backed up, allowing room for the Exporter to thrust itself into the desert sand as it blasted off towards Gas Town.

Furiosa sighed, seeing the successful trade take place on their end. The Boys must be doing their best to get the tanker emptied so the Exporter could take it back to Gas Town. Trade was flourishing between the territories like never before now that the trade agreements were in place; there would be no violence, nothing of the sort, only dropping goods off and picking them up. The Gas Town exporter followed behind, the empty tanker now attached to the hull.

Success.

She let out a breath she didn't know she held, watching the War Boys call out, pump their fists, their lancers excited to be back out on the road. They were restless without war, antsy, rowdy. There were more fights in the bunks, despite Nux's best attempts to soothe them. They were dealing with a lifetime of being told they would die for something more; now, that “something more” was pulled out from under them.

It would take time.

–

Nux laughed with his Boys, a successful trade completed again. He was proud, everything had gone so according to plan it was unusual.

“Nux!” a voice called to him from below. Cheedo's brown hair whipped around her head as she searched for him.

“Up here!” he called. Was something wrong? Was Capable alright? 

Her smiling face that snapped up to meet him soothed his thoughts. She turned to return to the stairway, running up to meet him, War Boys plastering themselves against the walls to make way for the Dignitary, so shiny, so clean.

“What's going on?” Nux met her eyes as she gasped for air. 

“Two weeks, Nux,” she finally breathed out. “Two weeks.”

Nux smiled at that. Two weeks? That was so soon, it was too soon. Had it been that long already? “How do you know?”

“She... she's lightening, Remedy said. Soon.”

Nux nodded, smiling. Two weeks. 

–

Week Forty

It wasn't two weeks; Cheedo lied. Nux knew she didn't mean to, but she did, and the fact that the baby hadn't arrived in two weeks was now a concern for him. Every day that passed, how are you feeling? Are you having any more of those, what were they called? Yeah, contractions, any more? What can I do to help?

It was Furiosa who was surprised the most at Nux's involvement. She'd expected him to take the responsibility and be happy, but she didn't anticipate just how much he sacrificed for it. He'd given up time in the garage, he painfully learned how to cook what food they had with Toast, he'd had Cheedo read him books about babies, and most surprisingly, the Dag clung to him. She had sought him out, many afternoons spent with him behind closed doors. Furiosa inquired what was going on, and he explained: she spoke to him about her baby, about Capable and him, about the Citadel. Nux rarely responded and he figured she liked that, someone to talk to and not talk over. Perhaps it was because he was male, perhaps it was because he had shown himself so dedicated to Capable's fertility, no one knew. But the Dag turned around in this time with Nux, shedding tears that she needed to, releasing feelings she had kept far too long. Furiosa was impressed and pleased, seeing the Dag eat normally and tend to the plants she clung to was refreshing. Furiosa was the Imperator of the Citadel, but she was their honorary sister first.

Capable was uncomfortable. All around, uncomfortable was the lightest way she could put it. Forty weeks, glory... forty weeks she had harbored this life inside of her. For forty weeks, she watched her feet disappear from under her, her breasts swell, her bones and joints ache and her mind so sluggish some days she could barely think straight. It was going to be soon, Remedy assured, it was going to be soon.

Capable was resting her eyes when a small knock came from the door. She opened them just as the Dag appeared, closing the door behind her. Her eyes trailed first to Capable's torso, then to meet her gaze.

“Hey, Dag,” Capable reached from under her blankets. “How are you feeling?”

“I... I came to ask you the same,” she sat on the chair that Nux usually sat in, her wispy features usually emaciated. 

“I feel fine, really,” she lied. She felt her contractions more frequently now, lasting longer and growing more unbearable. 

“I'm sorry, Capable,” Dag skipped the pleasantries. “I've been... not living up to my promise to you.”

“Hm?”

“To help you. I haven't been helping you,” she swallowed, her eyes looking to the floor now.

“Oh, Dag...” Capable breathed. “I understand. Please, if you're not comfortable--”

“I want to be here, I want to be here when the baby is born,” she asserted, her voice stronger now.

Capable blinked. Seeing her pregnant was too much for her, how would she handle seeing her give birth?

Glory.

Give birth.

I'm going to give birth.

Soon.

Any minute, Remedy said.

Capable was thankful. She'd had enough of being doted on, of being too big to really enjoy moving. She tried her best to help out, but was often escorted back to her room before much could be accomplished. It's soon, rest, you need to relax, it's going to come soon, please.

“The rest of the Sisters want to see, too,” the Dag said. “They want to see the new life you've made.”

Life that was taken from her.

“That's alright with me,” Capable nodded, her lids heavy. “I'd love your support, Dag.”

She smiled then, small, but it was there. She had felt terrible really, for ignoring Capable like she did, and was thankful to know that she was forgiven. For now, Capable was the center of attention, any minute she could feel the final push, the final stretch.

“You know,” she said quietly, “Nux might be more terrified than you.”

“I've heard that you've been talking.”

“Yeah, yeah... he's good to talk to.”

Capable grinned. He really was. He'd listened to her during her mood swings, her crying, her senseless moaning about ankles and breasts and oh glory I can't see my feet, I hate this. I love this.

“He's so excited, though, Capable. He lights up like I've never seen when he talks about it. He goes on and on about names, what he wants to—”

“Names?” Capable interrupted. “He didn't mention that to me at all.”

“He hasn't come up with any, that's why,” the Dag giggled, Capable in tow. “He's... he's really impressed up, Capable. You were right, he's different. He's more than a War Boy. Yesterday he managed to not burn the hightower down when he made that bread for you.”

They laughed.

“He's real special,” Capable mused aloud. “He's taken it better than I ever could have imagined.”

They shared knowing silence, small contractions marking Capable's breaths. Soon, please. Soon. Now, please. Anything.

Cheedo entered then, humming sweet songs and holding cool rags. She laid one across Capable's forehead, though she was not overheating the coolness felt good.

“We have to keep you as comfortable as we can,” Cheedo said, setting the cooled rags next to her. “If there's anything, anything we can get, let us know.”

“Nux,” she said, her eyes closing with the coolness of the rag relaxing her.

Cheedo nodded. He was with Toast in the kitchen, she knew. She rested her hand along Capable's arm for a moment before retreating to find Nux.

“It's beautiful,” the Dag murmured. “You're beautiful, Capable.”

She felt a particularly stinging tug, swallowing the cry that was trying to force its way through her throat. She sure didn't feel beautiful.

Nux swung open the door and rushed to her side, kneeling next to Dag and smiling. Capable opened her eyes, returning a smile to him, before she started laughing.

“What's all over you?” she giggled, lightening the contractions that weaseled their way through her calm demeanor.

“It's uh,” he reached up to brush the white dust from his face, “well, Toast said it was flour. But you showed me flour, and it's not like this at all.”

“You're thinking of flowers, Nux.”

“Yeah, flour.”

She shut her eyes and let off a breathy laugh. Toast followed behind Nux shortly, also brushing flour off of her apron.

“Lover boy here decided it'd be great to just slam a whole ball of dough into the dusting flour,” she explained, lighthearted but still peeved. Nux apologized for what was surely the hundredth time.

“We should give them space,” the Dag stood from the chair. She was always very intuitive to peoples' feelings, able to sense what others couldn't. The others listened to her, Toast still brushing flour off of her as they closed the door behind them.

Nux grasped her hand lightly, moving to sit next to her. “Soon,” was all he could say.

Soon.

–

Remedy burst into the room, scrambling once again with her supplies, dropping the non-essentials due to the chaos that erupted from the room. Screams, Nux shouting now, what's going on? Is she okay? The Sisters hushing him, comforting her.

“Get out,” Remedy alluded towards the Sisters. They were shuffled into the hallway, the door closing and muffling her screams.

“She said we should be with her!”

“You can't expect us to miss this!”

“She needs us!”

Remedy turned her back on the door, only for Capable to look up to her.

“Please,” she gasped out, “please, let them stay. Please.”

Remedy rolled her eyes, groaning as she opened the door once again, dirty glares all around as they rushed back in.

“Stay behind her, then, please, give me room,” she situated herself between Capable's knees that she had bent moments before.

They did.

Furiosa rushed in then, her chest heaving. Glory.

It was time.

Nux held her hand, tolerating the extreme grip she dug into it with. She was sweating, she was hot, it was time, it was time.

Remedy slapped on her gloves, working quickly. She worked, making sure everything was alright. She was dilated, everything seemed healthy, she said. 

“Shut up!” Capable screamed at Nux who had been mumbling sweetness to her, comforting, though apparently he was doing the opposite. His eyes widened and his mouth shut, a small grin decorating Remedy's face. Men, she thought, always needing to be put in their place.

The women watching intently, Remedy looked up to Capable. Her eyes met hers, both intense and serious.

“You have to push,” she said almost too calmly. 

Nux didn't like the sounds she made when she did so, curses flying and her hand squeezing his painfully now. There were no painkillers in the wasteland.

Remedy's face closed off, her brows furrowed and her lips pursed. She looked to Nux first, who stared at her with worry, then to Capable whose eyes were squeezed shut, then at the women. Their eyes lingered on her as she swallowed and returned to her work.

Was something wrong? Is everything alright? Why had she looked like that? Why was she so stressed? Remedy is never stressed. Why won't say anything?

“Capable,” she finally shouted. “Capable, everything is going to be fine, you just have to push very, very hard, alright?” Her voice cracked.

Remedy's voice cracked. Remedy's voice never cracked. She was always calm and collected... unless there was something wrong.

Nux's eyes widened. There was something wrong.

Capable cried out again, her eyes opening to look towards the sisters that stared worriedly. She had heard Remedy's worry as well, and it concerned her. Please, is everything alright? Am I alright? Is the baby alright?

“Capable!” Remedy called. Capable closed her eyes and pushed once more, Nux staying silent but holding her hand with both of his.

“Glory...” Remedy murmured, though she didn't mean to.

“What?” Capable gasped out. “What? Is it okay?”

Remedy seemed busy. “Capable, the baby is breech. It's going to be okay, you just have to push.”

Breech? What did that mean? Did that hurt Capable? Was the baby hurt? Nux's head raced, his heart racing, feeling useless and stupid. 

The sisters looked to one another, solemn. Please, please, let me know if that's really okay. Please, is she going to be okay? What's breech?

“Remedy,” he finally piped up, despite his best interests telling him not to. “Remedy, what's breech?”

She looked to him for a moment. “It means the baby's coming out bottom-first, when usually the head comes out first.”

He nodded, Capable looking to him with reassuring eyes; it's okay, Remedy said it's alright, don't worry.

More time passed, feeling like eons. Remedy rummaged in her bag with one hand, pulling out a scary looking pair of forceps. Nux reeled. What were those for? Glory, please, please, be okay, don't be hurt, please...

“One more, Capable,” Remedy was busy, setting the forceps on the bed. Capable was already in so much pain, her mind almost delirious from it. She was so tired, so tired...

Though she pushed again, pushed through the haze that clouded her eyes, Remedy's strained face and muscles accompanying Capable's pained cries. 

“One more,” Remedy called.

“You said that one push ago!” Capable breathed out, angry.

“We have to go by your contractions,” she said calmly.

Remedy only looked at her for a moment before returning to her work. 

“You're hurting me! Remedy!” she cried out. Nux swallowed at this. She was in so much pain. He'd told himself that nothing could ever hurt Capable again, he would protect her, he would keep her safe...

Remedy grabbed the forceps, the chrome shiny, but not like Valhalla. “Just a little more, Capable. One more this time, for real, one more.”

And it was one more.

And then it was quiet.

Capable breathed, her muscles relaxing. It was quiet.

Why was it quiet?

“Beautiful,” Remedy held the baby in her hands, asking for a towel that she'd managed to drop on her way in. The Dag scrambled to hand it to her, but Remedy insisted upon laying it across Capable's body.

Then there was a cry.

It was shrill and it was piercing, but it was a cry, it was a cry.

“A baby girl,” Remedy said, laying the baby down on Capable's torso.

There is was. There was the baby, there it was. Nux smiled, laughing, Capable amazed and reaching up to wrap the towel around it. 

Glory, glory, glory.

The sisters clamored around Capable then, witnessing the baby, congratulations, she's so beautiful.

All Nux could hear was the shrill cries that emitted from this... strange blue-pink creature wrapped up on Capable's chest. All he could see were her blue eyes looking around, hello, welcome to the world, that's your mommy, that's your mommy. I'm your daddy.

I'm your daddy.

Capable looked up to Nux then. There would be more to go, but for now, there was peace.

There was peace.


	4. Months Zero to Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! So I'm going about this in a bit of slice-of-life style, where there will be skips of time because I would like to follow the baby all the way to adulthood and it would be one loooong fic if there were no skips. So this is month zero to three. I've learned more about baby development in the last day than in all four years of high school.
> 
> Some language in the chapter, be warned. 
> 
> I wanted to explore how Nux would feel with the baby, so this is a Nux-centric chapter. Capable will be having a more active role for sure soon. 
> 
> Please let me know if the baby's name was a bad choice. I spent forever on it and it still doesn't feel right and I can edit it no problem.
> 
> Next chapter will be months six to one year. Then there will be larger jumps with more milestones so I can write longer chapters compared to a bunch of short ones.
> 
> Thanks for reading :)

He'd stroked her little head all the time, marveling. She slept, and then she didn't, and then she did, and then she woke and was hungry. She reminded him of his War Boys, he'd laughed to himself tonight, running his fingers along hers, settling down and finally sleeping again. The night was quiet, Capable shifting in the bed to return to sleep, still exhausted from the day's events. Nux stayed with the crib for a while longer, retracting his hand and instead looking at her in the dim light of the moon, so peaceful now, sleep little one, you need it. You're so small, look at you. How can something so small be real? Was she really going to grow up?

He sighed, the baby girl before him remaining unnamed. They had time, they agreed, to come up with a perfect name now that they knew she was a girl. Dag had wanted something ethereal, Toast something lush, Cheedo something cute... but Nux still drew a blank, Capable having come up with some ideas but none seemed fitting. She needed the best name there was, she needed the best of everything. She needed the cleanest air, the softest clothes.

Capable opened her eyes, seeing the silhouette of Nux in the moonlight that poured in from the window. He was watching her, admiring her. Capable wanted desperately to join him, but found herself too tired to do much else other than watch.

“You're so small,” he murmured to it, soft and gentle. “You're perfect. You're perfect.”

Capable smiled into her pillow. Her green eyes weighing heavy in her skull, his words soothing her to sleep.

–

“I think I've got it,” Capable said, the baby in her arms searching the room, hearing mom's voice. Her eyes were so blue, piercing and big. She was so healthy, so vibrant.

“Hm?” Nux asked from behind her, picking up a small blanket that the sisters had delivered that morning. It was soft and pink, so rare to have in the wasteland.

“Bliss,” she smiled to the baby, then looking up at Nux who stared at her with the same wide, blue eyes the baby below her had.

“Bliss,” Nux repeated. 

Bliss.

–

“Put her down, here,” the Dag cooed, spreading the blanket out on the table. Nux did so, holding her head like Capable had showed him, always gentle, always supportive. She can't keep her head up yet, she needs us to help her. He never forgot.

“Then, you tuck this side under her arm like that, see?” she did so, Bliss maintaining her curious stare on Nux. The Dag wrapped the blanket around Bliss, finally like a little pink cocoon. Nux picked her up, always holding her head, and then placed her in the crook of his arm, cradling her. Still such a strange feeling to him, holding her like this. 

He'd never even entertained the possibility of children. He'd always been an invalid, a sacrifice to something greater than himself. He was a War Boy, he would drive and Slit his lancer, high octane blood running through him with every mile he crossed in the desert. Now, he sat on the couch in the foyer, this small little girl looking up at him like he was the God he had once been ready to sacrifice his life to. He did live for something greater, now; he lived for her.

“You got the hang of it,” the Dag sat next to him. She'd been the first aside from Capable and Nux to hold her, to feel her soft skin against her own. What a beautiful brand new little living thing, she'd mused. With every dart of her eyes, the Dag's suspicions about her father grew lesser, her decision made by that evening. There was no way this baby was Immortan's, there's no way. She smiled like Nux, her eyes so clear and blue. Though Immortan's eyes were blue as well, it just... didn't seem right to her, and the Dag had always trusted her gut.

“How does it feel?” she continued, Nux holding the baby still against his chest. 

“Real... real strange, still,” he said, his voice soft and cautious. Capable said loud noises would scare her.

“It'll never stop being strange.”

Nux looked to the Dag now, who smiled lightly back at him. He swallowed, still feeling like an imposter. Like this wasn't his life. 

“Do you think she'll really be okay?” he asked.

The Dag placed her hand on his shoulder. “She'll be more than okay, Nux. She has you and Capable and all of us here. She's the newest face of the Citadel,” she looked down at her. “A new face of hope.”

The Dag's insightful musings always charmed Nux. Bliss, the new face of hope for the Citadel.

“Have you told the Boys?” 

Nux shook his head. “The older ones asked about Capable all the time, but I haven't been to the garage in so long now...”

With her head nestled in his arms, he craned his wrist to stroke her head, small blonde hairs meeting his fingers. She cooed, the noise coursing through Nux and settling in his chest, tight. 

“How is Capable?” she asked.

“She's great, in the shower now,” Nux perked when her name was mentioned, humoring Dag. “She's real excited about everything.”

“Have you seen her feeding her?” 

Nux looked at Dag, confused. Bliss had woken up hungry many times during the night, but he never really got a good look. He shook his head.

“It's beautiful,” the Dag droned. “It's the most beautiful thing I can imagine.”

Nux nodded then, the rise and fall of his chest calming Bliss below.

–

“She said it was beautiful?” Capable mused, holding the baby to her chest, the night making their silhouettes border white.

“Yeah, she said it was the most beautiful thing she could imagine,” Nux insisted, sitting next to Capable in the bed. He'd seen her mouth clasp around her nipple, her little head held up by the swaddling shawl Capable had received from Cheedo. He was familiar with Mother's Milk, the life-source for all the babies born in the Citadel and harvested from the Producers, but Capable and Bliss didn't seem like that at all. This was quiet, soft, no pumps or machines: just them.

“I don't know about that,” Capable grinned. She was so tired, so deprived of sleep. But it was worth it, she knew. She needed to nourish Bliss and it's not like she knew it was the ungodly hours of the morning when she decided to cry about it. 

“What is the most beautiful thing, then?” Nux moved his eyes from Bliss to Capable's eyes, heavy and dull. 

Capable smiled, looking back at him. “All of this.”

They both grinned, both tired and almost delirious. The seal was broken, and Bliss was ready to be welcomed back to the land of dreams.

–  
It was one of those days. Bliss was rowdy, difficult, resisting sleep and wanting only to be with Capable. Nux was reassured that no, it didn't mean Bliss hated him, it just meant she was picking favorites that day, being picky. He'd stayed, though, watching Capable hold her as she ate or conversed with the sisters. Maybe Bliss would need him today.

Little squeaky groans filled the air, a telltale sign of more to come. Capable swayed the baby in her arms, shh, shh.

It was fruitless, though, the baby's cries piercing through the air. Capable rocked, slow, gentle, are you hungry? Do you need to be changed? No, no, you're just tired, aren't you? Poor thing, shhhh.

“Does she need that... that thing? The thing you gave her?” Nux was slightly panicked the way he always was when the baby cried.

Capable smiled. “You mean the rattle?”

“Yeah, yeah, that,” he nodded. He went back to the bedroom, to her crib, to retrieve it. 

When he returned, he nestled the rattle between Bliss and Capable's arm, the Dag's seeds inside the clear plastic making noise, replacing the cries of the now quiet baby.

Then she burst into tears once more.

“She's just grumpy,” Capable explained to the dismayed Nux. He was still so confused-- how could she be grumpy? She sleeps all day. But then again she's up at night. Why didn't she just sleep? Then she wouldn't be grumpy.

“Take her for a second,” Capable asked, extending the baby to Nux who nodded quickly and braced himself as he took the obviously very upset Bliss. Capable turned her back to retrieve another blanket from the couch.

Then it was quiet.

Capable turned back to them slowly, cockeyed. Nux was equally as incredulous, his body stiff as Bliss only sniffled. He smiled then, imitating Capable and rocking on his heels and looking down at the little creature in his arms. Capable had gotten upset when he called it that, but to Nux a creature wasn't something bad, it was something miraculous, something amazing and alive. She didn't appreciate it, but he'd gotten accustomed to calling her a beautiful creature, small creature, lovely creature... his creature.

“You... what did you do?” she stepped towards the two, Nux still transfixed on Bliss. 

“Nothing,” he breathed in disbelief. Bliss seemed content now, her eyes seemingly transfixed on Nux's chest scars. Such big eyes for such a little creature.

“She... she just wanted you, then,” Capable smiled.

–

“They're real easy to read,” Toast plopped on the couch, her arms sore from carrying the books she placed next to Nux. “Maybe you could read them to her.”

“I... I can't really, uh, read,” Nux picked up one of the smaller books, bound by blue ribbon. 

“I wrote a lot of them out myself, real big letters, but I stole the pictures from some other books,” she ran her hand through her short hair. “I'm sure you'd get the hang of it.”

Nux nodded, though he didn't believe her. He couldn't even read the title of this one, and as he flipped through it he couldn't make out any words other than “the” or other small ones. Capable had read to him frequently, and he loved the stories. He wanted to read to Bliss, to make her feel like Capable made him feel, and a sting of guilt ran through him knowing he couldn't.

“They're fairy tales,” Toast explained. “We found a bunch of stories in the library.”

Nux picked up another, the cover coated with soft fabric. 

“You made all of these?” Nux looked up at her now.

“Most of them. Well, not the stories, but Cheedo helped me make the books. I've got the best handwriting out of them, even Cheedo who seems obsessed with this sort of stuff.”

Nux counted ten books lined with blue, ten with pink. In just a month, she had done this? These women were truly goddesses.

“Thank you, Toast,” Nux grinned. “That means a lot, Capable will love this. She likes books a lot.”

Silence then as Nux fingered the books, trying to catch any words. There was “boy” and “love” he could see.

“You know, Nux,” Toast said softly, a smile on her face, “it's still strange seeing you with hair.”

Nux chuckled, reaching his hand up to run it along his patchy hair. It was dark, almost black but still brown. It grew in sloppily, Nux not sure how to approach it. He'd had his head shaved for as long as he could remember; having hair as a War Boy was a sign of rebellion, distrust, going soft. He struggled to look at himself with it, having to remember each day that he was new, this was new, the Citadel was new. His hair was new.

“I'm not sure if I'm gonna keep it,” he returned his hand to his side.

“You should,” Toast reached up to almost pet him then, running her hand down the length of his head to his neck. “It suits you.”

–

The... brown... skip that, and that... to the.... skip that, to get to the, I know that word, c'mon, oh, house. He...fuck, on the door. The door... opened, and his friend... how do I even say that? Ge- Geyou-... Fuck, G boy, his friend G boy...

–

Cheedo sat cross-legged on the floor with the Dag to her left and Toast to her right, Nux across from her with Capable. In the middle was Bliss, laying on her tummy. She was getting so big, the clothes they'd made already outgrowing her. She loved to be on her tummy, often crying when placed on her back until someone flipped her over. The Dag made turtle jokes that went over Nux's head.

She was raising her chest and her head now, getting strong. She looked around the room, always curious, her eyes moving from one shiny thing to the next. Just like a War Boy, Nux mused.

“She's so healthy,” Toast smiled, glad to be spending time with Bliss. Often she cried when she was out of the arms of Capable or Nux, still scared of the world around her. Not the most unfounded fear.

“You're all helping so much,” Capable grinned. “Thank you, really. She loves the books.”

Nux looked down at the floor, then returned to Bliss after a moment.

There were toys skewed around her, shiny and noisy. She began to fuss, cuing Capable to scoot to her and sit with her, holding her up. She reached out and swiped at the toys, unable to really grab them but attracted. Capable smiled, holding one of the chrome trinkets in front of her, her eyes going wide at seeing her reflection.

Then she smiled.

“Nux,” Capable gasped. “Nux, she smiled!”

“I missed it!” Nux was instantly worried. The women told him how fast milestones came and went and he should be there to see them as much as he could. Had he missed this one?

“Don't worry,” the Dag said, “there will be plenty more to see.”

–

The brown dog... what the fuck is a 'dog'?... skip that... went to go to the house. He... kno... knock... knocked on the door, and his friend... G boy... opened it. “Hello,” G boy said. “Hello,” the brown dog said. “What...” ah, fuck. “What brings... what brings you here?” He's asking him why he's there, alright. “I need... a cup of...” what? What is that? I've never even seen that word. Is that even a word?

–

Bliss gripped the rattle herself this time, the crib's soft blankets absorbing the shock as Bliss knocked the rattle against them. She didn't need Nux to shake it for her, she could do it herself, and Nux and Capable sure knew it. All day, it seemed, rattle rattle rattle. 

“You should take her out,” Capable folded the small clothes that Bliss wore, so small. 

“Out? To the rest of the Citadel?” Nux walked out of the bathroom, a towel around his waist.

“Why not?”

“It's dangerous out there. The air isn't clean.”

“It won't hurt her, she needs to see the sun.”

“The sun isn't good for her.”

“Remedy says it's fine.”

“I don't really care,” Nux slipped on his pants, some water dripping down his forehead. Damn this hair; it kept water on him. No wonder he shaved.

“You're being ridiculous,” Capable giggled. He was so protective of her, getting nervous even when she was out of sight for a moment. He'd rejected the idea of a nursery for now, worried that if she cried, he wouldn't hear, if she needed him, she would be scared, if she was hungry or hurt... The debate was dropped quickly.

“She's safe here,” Nux was stubborn. He always was. She'd fought him tooth and nail sometimes over the simplest things: should Bliss wear socks? Will you change your pants, please? It's your turn to settle her down.

“You can bring my sling with you,” Capable insisted. He wasn't going to win this time. “It'll protect her from the sun.”

Nux grabbed the gray sling that Capable held out to him. He stared her down for a moment, waiting for her to break eye contact, but she never did. 

“Why don't you take her?” he snapped, running the fabric through his fingers.

“I'm going back to the Pups today,” she said, sliding on a linen dress. 

“Already?” Nux wrapped the sling around his neck.

“It's been two months. I'm not staying for long, just visiting. The Nurturers tell me the Pups miss me.”

“She'll miss you too,” Nux looked at the squirming Bliss, in her crib.

“Like I said, Nux,” she was getting irritated, “I'm just visiting. She'll have you for now.”

Nux nodded. Just a visit. Bliss would be fine, he had the sling and she was just fed, they'll be back before she even knows she was gone.

“Relax,” Capable approached him and fixed the position of the sling that Nux had botched. “She'll enjoy it.”

Nux nodded, sighing, not really believing Capable. She gave him a peck on the cheek, wrapping her arm around his waist. He buried his nose in her hair. They'd been so tired, so exhausted from the baby that often neither of them could muster up the energy for romance. Little displays like this were their way of telling each other it was still alive, it would come back, little pecks, hugs, cuddles.

She helped him settle Bliss into the sling, nice and tight. She reached up to touch Nux's chest scars, opening and shutting her hands. He looked down at her with a smile, her blue eyes always meeting his for a moment before they wandered again.

He was almost too slow in going down the stairs, mumbling to the baby that lay against him. He gripped the railing with one hand, keeping one hand below her to support her. It's alright, you're okay, you're gonna like the sun, there's lots of stuff to see down here, you'll like it, lots of shiny stuff.

The desert sun bore down on him, hot. He cupped his hand over Bliss's forehead, providing shade though the sling already covered most of her head. She tried to peer out, the bustle of the Citadel so busy compared to the calmness she was used to.

Nux began to walk, trying to watch where he was going and also Bliss, whose eyes scanned what she could see. He was confident, then, that she would be fine, she would be fine, take her around, show her things. Show her what the world has for her.

He brought her to the newly extended greenhouse, Dag excited to see Bliss out and about. She showed her flowers that she toyed with in her hands, fruits, berries, some vegetables. Bliss reached out to touch Dag's hair, warm from the sun. After the impromptu tour, Nux moved on, the Dag needing to get back to her work.

He showed her the small bazaar that was growing at the center of the Citadel, small shops selling clothes or food from the greenhouse, water packets. Currency was a foreign concept, implemented by Furiosa only when vendors approached her about business strategy. It was efficient. The Wretched women fawned over Bliss, Glory be she has your eyes, she's so sweet and healthy, adorable, what a beautiful baby, what a fitting name. 

Nux bent down to let her touch the shaded sand, not too hot. She didn't seem interested in it. Yeah, it's pretty boring stuff, he thought, no worries.

Nux liked having her with him, he liked the sling and he liked to hear her babble. She would reach out from the sling, curious, always curious. What a beautiful thing it must be to know so little about the world.

His eyes drifted to the garage, a few flights of stairs and a short walk between them and it. He had left his trustworthy lancer in charge, though the thoughts still ran through his head: were they not completely ruining everything? Is Organic managing the blood banks well? Were enough donations coming in? Was one packet of water enticing enough for healthy people to come donate, even? How would they handle scrap trips?

His thoughts were halted with a loud “Nux!” from behind him.

He turned his head to see Crack, still painted and carrying some scrap metal. 

“Nux, you're not dead, what a shock!” he approached him now, the feral War Boy grin on his face. 

“Is that what they're sayin' down there?” he turned fully now, Bliss fully in view. Crack, whose skull caved in with the large crack above his absent eye, stared with the one he had at the baby.

“Yeah, just a joke, though,” he said, snapping out of it. “You schlanger, you didn't tell us she was born!” 

“Yeah, yeah, two months ago.”

“Two months?!” Crack yelled.

Bliss began to crinkle her features and whimper.

“Shhh,” Nux told first to Bliss, then to Crack. “She doesn't like loud noises.”

“Glory be, Nux...” Crack's features fell. “What's happened to you?”

“What do you mean?” he let Bliss toggle with his finger.

“You've gotten all... soft. I mean it's... it's a baby but, you're... look at you. What is that thing?” Crack spat.

“What thing?”

“The thing the baby's in.”

“It's called a sling.”

“Ah. Ha, you know what else is called a sling? The suspension rig you used to hang from, fixin' engines,” Crack smiled then, slightly demented.

Nux sighed. “I ain't soft.”

“Ya sure are. Look at the hair on yer head.”

They met glares, the bustle moving around them. It was a great insult to be called soft-- it meant you didn't go to Valhalla, it meant you weren't fulfilling your duties. It wasn't endearing hearing it from Crack.

“You wouldn't get it,” Nux maintained eye contact. 

“You bet yer ass I wouldn't,” Crack's nostrils widened. “We ain't even supposed to have babies, Nux. All the Boys are real confused. Like they been lied to.”

“They have been lied to,” Nux felt Bliss squirm a bit.

“Yeah, by you.”

“By me?”

“You said you'd help us. You said you'd be there for us, calling the shots. And you did a damn good job when you actually did it.”

Nux swallowed. It really had been a long time, hadn't it, since he'd been in the garage. Too long.

“How is Flaps doing?” Nux asked, his features not softening.

“Fine, fine,” Crack broke eye contact then to look at the ground with his sarcasm, “just trying to get all the support from the Boys who ain't believe in you no more.”

Nux's hard features fell. They didn't believe in him anymore? He thought they'd understand. He thought they'd know there was more to life for him, he'd tried to explain...

“Is it even yours?” Crack's wicked smile returned, received by daggers from Nux's eyes.

Silence, then a chuckling nod from Crack.

“You go be daddy to a baby that ain't even yours,” Crack began to move past him then, giving one more glance at the baby that remained oblivious. “Softie.”

He'd been called a softie a few times from the sisters, a hard knot always growing in his gut from it. He knew it was a compliment from them, proud to see how he'd matured as a father, how gentle he was with the baby, how protective he was. But now, it was a great insult. It was akin to calling a man a “bitch”, though the language was considered archaic and was used only when one of the Boys was making fun of the Elders.

Crack behind him now, Nux looked to the ground and swallowed. There was so much he couldn't explain to them, so much that they wouldn't understand. The War Boys were not paternal, they helped with the Pups only when it was instruction, nurturing being for Breeders. Nux would always be a War Boy, though, always.

Then, with Bliss babbling, he trudged on, kicking sand up from under his boots. 

–

The brown dog hurriedly went to get to the house. He knocked on the door, and his friend... G boy... opened it. “Hello,” G boy said. “Hello,” the brown dog said. “What brings you here?” “I need a cup of... sugar.” That's the white stuff in the bowl, Toast said. “I have a cup of sugar,” G boy said. “But I want...” argh, “I want... a... buh-buhl... buhlah-bulanehkit?” “I have one,” the dog said. “It is pink.” Oh, oh, blanket. Why does this G boy need a blanket in exchange for sugar?

\--  
“What the...”

“Is that...?”

“The fuck's he wearin'?”

The Boys looked up to meet him. His hair had been shaved, he was bald again, his hard features meeting their incredulous eyes.

It had been a month since his altercation with Crack, the smell of guzzoline and oil paining his sinuses as he stood at the observation deck. All activity halted, save for one Boy rushing to the front of the crowd below Nux.

“Hey! Nux!” Flaps called up. He gave the V8 salute, laughing. “Good to see you back!”

Nux didn't respond, only a hard grimace on his features. He searched for Crack, unseen.

“What're ya wearin?” a solitary voice called up from the crowd.

“Did the baby come yet?”

“Are you stayin'?”

“What's got ya tongue?”

Nux looked at Bliss now, unseen by the Boys under him. His features automatically softened, but returned to their hardness when he looked to address the mass below him.

“Where is Crack?” he called, no greeting, no pleasantries.

One of the Boys scuttled from the crowd. “He's in the Repair room!”

“Go get him.”

He nodded, shuffling off with a limp to do so.

“Nux, 's everything alright?”

“You good, mate?”

Nux only waited.

Crack appearing from the archway, he met eyes with Nux and let out a boisterous laugh.

“The fuck you doin' here? Ain't the fumes gonna make yer little goblin sick?” he called, approaching Nux's platform.

“Goblin?”

“Crack what're goin' on about?”

“Oh glory, he's got the baby with 'im!”

“Where?”

“It's in that thing on his chest.”

“Nux, the baby was born!?”

“You ain't tell us!”

Nux maintained his gaze with Crack.

“There are bigger things than just me, now,” Nux began, his thumb placed gently over one of Bliss's ear, the other pressed into his chest. 

The Boys were silent, Crack's weaselly smile the only one in the crowd.

“Flaps has been real chrome, yeah?”

A chorus of agreements. 

“You're just gonna give it up to 'im then? You were supposed to be--” Crack called.

“I'm giving nothing to no one,” Nux was calm. “I'm here to make something very clear.”

Silence.

“This baby is pretty close to all I've got. I've got this garage, I've got Capable, and I've got her. And that's what matters the most right now. I'd thought you all to be understanding of that, but from what I've heard--”

“So it's a girl?” one voice interrupted him.

Nux's brows furrowed.

“Yeah, what's 'er name, then?”

“Dignitary Capable's alright, yeah?”

Crack looked around, his lips parting.

“Can we see 'er? Why ain't you tell us she was born!”

“He's been real busy, you dopey twat.”

Nux's eyes widened, his features softening. 

“Is she healthy?”

“Yeah, she ain't sick right?”

“And what if she was? Now you're gonna get him all upset.”

“You fuckin' softies!” Crack screamed, angry, pushing his way to the front of the crowd.

“Fuck off you schlanger!”

Crack threw his arms up. “You're all gonna care about that thing? We're standin' here like idiots when there's shit to do.”

“Shut yet trap!”

Crack slammed his arms into his legs, storming off, pushing his way back into the Repair room.

“Nah Nux don't worry about 'im, real hardass he is.”

Nux smiled then. They did understand. He hadn't put his faith where it didn't belong, he did know he Boys.

“Do ya got time?” Nux called down to them.

“For what?”

“Don't you want to meet her?” Nux shouted, his thumb still over the very calm Bliss.

They clamored then, talking amongst themselves and bustling towards the staircase.

“Outside, outside!” Nux was giddy then. 

He knew his Boys.

–

“And she jus'... she likes shiny stuff?” one cleaned off Boy sat next to Nux, Bliss resting in his lap.

“Yeah, yeah, she can grab stuff and she tries to make words, she likes when we sing to her or read to her but she doesn't really understand,” Nux smiled, her head leaning against his chest.

“Man, look at her, she's so small,” another Boy joined them. A few other Boys clamored in the bathing bay, hey that's my soap, where's my pants? Don't touch me, mate.

“Can ya sing good?” he laughed, his smile meeting Bliss's eyes.

And she smiled.

“Nux, mate, lookit! Lookit, she's smilin' at me!” the Boy shuffled to move closer to her, her little lips indeed turned up into a smile.

“Well lookit that,” Nux sighed, smiling. “She likes you.”

He seemed to be amazed by that, smiling wide. 

Nux was surprised by the attention they'd wanted to give the baby. They'd cleaned off their war clay for her, Nux explaining that dirt and grime would make her sick. He didn't anticipate the enthusiasm they would have, how much they wanted to touch her, how curious they were.

“She's got yer eyes, Nux,” a new Boy joined, sitting in the circle.

My eyes? Maybe. They could change color, Capable had said, there's no way of knowing if her eyes would change from blue to another color for a while. Who knows if they were even my eyes in the first place?

The rest of the Boys that wanted to join did so, a small circle of maybe twenty boys accumulated around Nux and Bliss.

“So whatser name?”

Nux smiled, looking up to the group that looked so strangely naked to him.

“Bliss.”

They erupted in comments, approvals, loud.

Too loud.

Bliss began to squirm, her eyes scrunching, and before Nux could calm her down, she began to cry.

The Boys were silent then, worried. Did they hurt her? Nux only held her in the crook of his arm then, rocking her like he'd gotten so good at doing. The Boys watched attentively, listening to Nux coo soft words to her, shh, shh, no one's gonna hurt you, you little creature.

She calmed down soon enough, the Boys not daring to make a sound.

“She just gets overwhelmed real easy,” Nux explained, placing her back in his lap.

“Sounds like Treg,” one Boy called out, a quiet round of laughter following.

“Shaddup,” presumably Treg responded.

“Ya know, I'm real surprised,” Nux felt the soft blonde hairs on her head. “I didn't think you'd all really care about her.”

“What? Mate we've been waitin' for any news from you.”

“Yeah, one day you said you'd come back and after a few months it didn't really feel like you would.”

“Good to see ya, though. And Bliss.”

He smiled. “Sorry, I've just been real... worried is all. She's... she's so small, how am I supposed to leave her be?”

The Boys murmured support, it's alright, no worries, she'll be right.

The sun began to set and Bliss was getting antsy. She would need to be fed soon. They stood, approaching Nux for their goodnights to Bliss, smiles and coos. So strange, Nux thought. He didn't think he would be one of the Boys who came to visit if he were one of them, but then again he'd surprised himself with how he had responded to the situation at all. Maybe he would have been the first to slough off to touch the new baby, or maybe he'd have trudged back to the Repair room. 

Nux pushed aside the curtain, the Dag looking at him with shock.

“You shaved your head,” she commented. Very observant, always.

“Yeah, hair's a hassle,” he smiled. He was in a good mood.

“How was your walk with Bliss?” the Dag grinned. “You missed dinner for it, it must have been good.”

“I took her to the garage today.”

The Dag's smile was replaced by a concerned glance. “I assume that went well...”

“Yeah, real well! They wanted to see her and play with her and all that stuff, real chrome.”

“Starting to sound more like a War Boy again,” the Dag approached him now.

“Again? I always been a War Boy.”

The Dag nodded.

“Just 'cuz I got Bliss doesn't mean I'm not a War Boy,” he cradled the wiggly baby.

“I understand,” the Dag grinned once more. “Just fix up your vernacular before Capable hears.”

“Vernacular?”

“How you're speaking, your words.”

“Ah,” he nodded. He did tend to adopt their rowdy speech, but it was like an accent-- an accent he'd had for as long as he could remember before he came to the hightower, before Capable.

“Dinner's in the kitchen when you want it,” the Dag went to the stairway then, leaving Nux alone with Bliss. 

Quiet.


	5. Six Months to One Year

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! So I got some messages on my Tumblr about this story and I'd like to clear some stuff up here. I do switch from third person to first person, it isn't a mistake, it's a stylistic choice. There's no rules to writing, only guidelines, and I think having first person insight is valuable in a story like this.
> 
> Please know that these chapters take me longer to write because I have to research baby development and then come up with an accurate story. One of my biggest pet peeves among kid fics is how inaccurate they can be, so I take my time and try to really nail the life stages.
> 
> Thank you for the overwhelming support on this and my other fics. This is easily the most welcoming fandom I've been a part of!

“I'll be watching her, don't worry,” Capable assured. “I'm more worried about you.”

“I'll be fine, just gotta do it,” Nux pecked her on the cheek, a customary goodbye between the two.

Capable held Bliss close to her chest, feeling slightly more rested than usual today. Bliss loved to be talked to and babble in return, much to the amusement of the Sisters and Nux. Bliss smiled all the time now, bright eyes and soft skin.

Nux scrambled down to the garage, this appearance marked by greetings from the Boys closer to him and those not so clearing a path for him. 

“Organic,” Nux greeted, his hand clapping into the older man's with a loud thud. His hands were so rough compared to Nux's whose skin there was softened by baby soaps and lotions.

“How's the livin' corpse doin' up there all by his lonesome?” Organic strung an actual blood bag up on its rig, knowing Nux would come.

“Livin',” Nux answered simply, holding out his arm.

–

 

Capable dragged the mashed strawberry across her already pink lips. Bliss's tongue darted out to receive it; she wasn't a picky eater. Thank goodness, because Capable didn't have much wiggle room for her to be picky. She sucked on her finger, so soft. Her transition to solid foods would go fine, fine.

Though as peacefully as the moment started, it ended chaotically.

Bliss didn't quite act up to her name when she teethed. 

Capable rocked her, shhh, Bliss, it's alright, I know it hurts, chew on this, here.

The rubber ring was encapsulated in Bliss's mouth, her cries easing as she realized it relieved the pain.

Capable looked down at the baby in her arms, innocence in its purest form.

The poor thing.

Capable set her down on the blanket that lined the floor, sitting cross-legged next to her. She watched her play, reaching towards toys that Capable would hand to her.

She liked to roll from one side to the other, little giggles pointing each turn.

And Capable watched.

And Capable cried.

She kept quiet, not wanting to disturb the jovial ministrations of Bliss. She let tears fall, emotions pent up from months prior. It was so hard, so hard to open up. The Sisters would come and visit her, how are you handling it? How are you feeling? Do you need anything?

Yes, yes, I need something. What do I need? I don't know. I have everything. I have everything I'd ever dreamed of as a child, I have Nux and I have Bliss, I have the Sisters...

What do I need?

A knock on the door.

Capable's head snapped upwards towards it, swallowing her last sob. She wiped her face, struggling to clamor to Bliss and holding her to her chest as she approached the door.

She cursed her tendency for red eyes as she met Remedy's face, automatically knowing. She didn't mention it.

“Hi,” Capable breathed out, her chest still aching from moments ago.

“Hello,” Remedy began to step into the room, some papers in hand.

“You know me, Capable, I hate... banal platitudes...” Remedy always felt the most comfortable with Capable; she related to her tendency to close herself off. It was refreshing to see someone so no-nonsense also so kind.

“I don't want to know, Remedy.”

Remedy's eyebrows raised, turning her gaze to the adamant Capable.

“Yes, you do,” Remedy grinned then. “You do, so badly in fact, that you sit in here and cry about it.”

Capable swallowed. 

Was that what she needed?

“Nux and I agreed--” she breathed, feeling her sobs creep back up into her throat.

“Don't give me that shit,” Remedy approached her.

Capable's strong features fell. “Don't yell at me.”

Remedy's standoffish stance lessened, Capable's short gasps paining the nurturer in her. “Sorry.”

“Nux and I agreed,” she began again, avoiding her gaze, “that it would be best to just... not know.”

“You didn't care to tell me that before I scrounged for supplies that haven't been in use for decades? Do you know how long it took to isolate even one iota of usable DNA?” she kept her voice strong but low.“Why would Nux give a sample if he didn't want to know?” Her eyebrows raised then. “You're shitting me.”

Capable rocked Bliss, their eyes meeting.

“We gotten real close in nine months, Capable. Didn't think you'd be one to lie to me after all that.”

Capable swallowed the guilt that crept up in the form of pained, choked sobs.

She was right. So many exams and visits, Remedy was really the only other person to know her emotional state. She'd placated Nux, pushed away the girls... but Remedy saw through her smiles. She always had.

“Nux wants to know, I know it, Capable. You can't push this,” she held up the papers, “away.”

Capable breathed heavily, her tears welling now. Remedy was right-- she always was. Capable could only look down at baby Bliss, no smiles or babbles, just staring at mom.

“I'm afraid, Remedy,” she sat down on the bed, “I'm afraid my feelings will change towards her if I know.”

“You're really worried about that? She's yours, no matter what.”

“She wouldn't be. She would be his. She'd have been forced on me.”

Remedy set the papers down and sat next to Capable. “No matter what those papers say, all that matters is how much you love her, and how much she loves you.”

Bliss babbled under them, mimicking the noises she heard.

Capable handed Bliss to Remedy who took her hesitantly. Capable curled her legs up to her chest. She felt so vulnerable, a feeling she hated and pushed away any chance she got. She'd pushed away tears on the Fury Road, she'd told Nux she was fine when she wasn't... she needed to feel in control. Yet now, as Remedy stood to place Bliss back in her crib, she let that facade crack, Remedy being one of the only people she felt comfortable doing it around.

“I'm not sure how Nux actually feels about you,” Remedy wrapped her arm around Capable, “but from what he says, it sounds something a bit like love. And you love him, I know.”

Capable's eyes glanced up to the stark white papers that sat across from her.

“If you want, I'll tell Nux first--”

“No, no. I want to tell Nux.”

Remedy nodded. She stood to retrieve the papers, keeping her eye on Capable who followed her actions. Sitting next to her, Capable faced the facts: she needed to know. 

That's what I need.

That's what Nux needs.

Capable opened her eyes and followed Remedy's finger as it ran down the page, her explanation dim in her ears as they rushed with blood, bah-bump, bah-bump, bah-bump.

Then Capable saw it.

She covered her face in her hands, breathing a deep sigh.

–

Larry and Barry were unforgiving. Though Nux felt the happiest he ever has in his whole meaningless half-life, they still nibbled at him endlessly. It was getting worse; he needed blood more frequently, he needed to breathe heavier just to get through the day.

But he did.

He opened the bedroom door to see Capable playing with Bliss, her hair tied up in a low bun. He admired her, her back curving softly to meet Bliss, who was trying to hold herself up with her knees on the floor. She could sit up all on her own now, her blond hair beginning to darken.

“Nux,” Capable turned, smiling. Nux noticed her reddened eyes as her features turned, what was wrong? Did something happen? Is she okay?

Capable shushed him as she wrapped her arms around him. He hugged her back, worried, she wasn't usually this physically affectionate so soon when he returned.

“Nux,” she breathed, the hotness of it gracing his ear, “she's yours.”

Nux eyes widened, his chest fluttering. She parted from him to see his smiling face, his brows furrowed.

“Mine? Like... really mine?”

“Yes, Nux, in blood and name.”

He laughed, bending down to make eye contact with Bliss who now wobbled onto her tummy. No sooner than the moment she rolled over Nux had scooped her up, smiling, murmuring soft words to her that she tried to repeat. Not yet, you'll get it soon, good try though.

His.

She was his. He was hers.

–  
“Jingle that in front of her, yeah, like that,” Capable instructed. Nux bounced the metallic-looking toy in his hands, the shine of it glinting in Bliss's eyes.

And she shuffled her left leg, her right, hauled herself up, balanced for a moment, and began to crawl. Capable and Nux stared, amazed, as she traversed from Capable to Nux, grabbing at the toy and then jingling it when she finally held it in her hands.

“See?” Capable grinned.

“She can crawl,” Nux's grin was almost wider than his face, Bliss plopping herself down in the space between his outstretched legs.

“She sure can,” Capable grinned back. 

The door was open, the clamoring in the foyer easily audible.

“Ay, mate, whatsya problem?”

“Is dis real necessary?”

Nux turned his torso to meet the eyes of a hightower guard, unusually out of place away from his post at the platform deck. Nux's smile faded, confusion replacing it.

“You have some... visitors, Dignitary Nux” the guard said, his burly stature taking up the breadth of the doorway.

Nux smiled again, recognizing the voices that condemned their rough treatment. 

“Let 'em in,” his War Boy drawl returning to him without his knowledge.

The guard nodded, moving aside for two more guards to escort the two unpainted Boys into Nux's frame of vision. Their arms were held behind their backs by arms stronger than theirs.

“You morons couldn't go through the safe way?” Nux turned his whole body to see them, scooping up Bliss and placing her in his lap.

“Mate, we was just, ah,” their arms were released, the guards scoffing before leaving to descend the staircase.

“Flaps, who's watchin' the garage?” Nux bounced Bliss on his knee. She giggled.

“Muncher,” he grinned, stepping into the room with the second Boy behind him. Their eyes were glued on Bliss, her grin slowly depleting.

“Mate, she's got so big,” Flaps sat down next to Nux, cross-legged. The skin flaps under his chin were always slightly unsettling, a deformity of extra skin that weighed heavily on his features.

“Pazzo, look at her little feet,” Flaps continued, the other boy ogling as well. 

Then their eyes settled on Capable.

“Ah! Dignitary Capable! Sorry to, er, disturb you, and Nux-- I mean, Dignitary Nux, we, uh--”

“No worries,” Capable smiled and rose, approaching the Boys. “I'm supposed to meet Toast soon. Nux might appreciate your help.”

They nodded, still sitting, her hand on the back on Nux's head. 

“Yeah, we'll be real careful, promise.”

“No worries, Dignitary.”

Capable closed the door behind her.

“So ya just came to visit?” Nux let Bliss back down on the floor after she wiggled her attitude. She wanted to get down.

“Yeah, Crack is gettin' too much sometimes,” Flap said.

“Watch this,” Nux said. He grabbed the shiny toy again and instructed Flaps and Pazzo to sit across from him. He placed Bliss in front of them and walked a ways back to where he sat before, and jingled the toy like he had with Capable.

One leg, two leg, one shuffling hand and another. She made her way from the Boys to Nux, all smiling and giggling.

“Mate she's movin' around now, you're gonna lose her all the time,” Pazzo joked.

Nux smiled as he scooped her up again, the smile returning to her face. They returned to Nux, still trying to play with a rather uninterested Bliss.

“We actually got a question, and it's alright if you don't wanna answer, I mean, we wouldn't wanna--”

“Just 'cuz I'm a dad don't mean you gotta talk to me like I gone soft,” Nux's War Boy shone through now, his piercing eyes meeting Flaps who would have rambled on forever. “Whatdya want?”

“I mean... you are a dad right?” He shifted his glance away from Nux.

“Whaddya mean?” 

“Well, the rumor is that Bliss is uh, Immortan's,” Pazzo answered.

Nux swallowed. He smiled then, meeting their eyes.

“Nah, she's mine flesh and blood. No worries about some stupid rumors,” he held Bliss close to him. 

They laughed and smiled, seemingly relieved. Then, they adopted wicked grins, their eyes playful.

“Ya lucky sonofabitch, Nux,” Pazzo was very quiet, leaning into Nux who felt his face flush.

“It's every War Boy's dream to get wid onna dem,” Flaps continued.

Nux's face fell. “It ain't like that,” he was defensive.

They immediately redacted. “Yeah! Of course, we ain't mean it that way. Yeah, was just jokin'.”

Silence then. Bliss seemed content being held by Nux, not shifting like she did when she got restless.

“Do ya think I could hold her?” Pazzo was hopeful.

“Sure, just, cradle your arms like this,” Pazzo mimicked Nux's stance, “and keep her real close to you.”

Pazzo received Bliss, her blue eyes still attached to Nux's. 

“Oh yeah, Mate, she's for sure yours, lookit those eyes.”

Pazzo felt a bit weak holding her, the sight of a baby still strange to War Boys. They were used to the Pups, but nothing really younger; the general populace was culled before they could see any babies.

Suddenly, Bliss's features turned. Her eyes broke her gaze at Nux, then slowly they squeezed shut, short cries panicking Pazzo.

“Wha-what? Hey, it's alright, no worries...” he droned on, speaking softly to her. She only grew more agitated.

Nux offered to take her back. “She's probably hungry.”

Pazzo nodded, the wiggling creature in his arms making him feel like some sort of monster. 

Once back in Nux's arms, she settled, staring up at him. The other Boys laughed.

“She's a daddy's girl,” they laughed.

“If ya spent more time with 'er, she'd be comfortable with you,” he argued, glad that Bliss wasn't throwing one of her incurable tantrums.

“It's alright, we just wanted to see 'er and see you n stuff...” they mumbled.

“See me?” he grinned.

“Yeah, ha,” Pazzo avoided Nux's eyes. “We miss ya.”

Nux smiled widely then. His Boys missed him? 

“When she's older and can handle herself more I'll be comin' back,” he reassured, knowing full well it was a truth. He had responsibilities that were prioritized; there were things bigger than him here.

–

“Do you think that's the best idea?” Nux's worried voice seemed unusually grating.

“Yes, Nux,” Capable insisted. “She's ten months old, she should have had a nursery long ago. You haven't even seen it yet, how can you be so negative towards it?”

“What if she wakes up in the night and needs us?” Nux watched Capable lay the comforter over their bed, settling, smooth now on the mattress.

“We'll hear her.”

“I just don't--”

“Nux!” she was very loud. Nux knew not to make another sound. She'd been getting like this recently, yelling, bursting when she shouldn't. “She will be fine. She's so insanely attached to us that when even the Dag holds her she gets separation anxiety. That'll hurt her, Nux! She needs her own space.”

Nux was quiet. He'd felt like a puppy again, like she'd kicked him. She looked at him for only a moment, registering his downtrodden body language, before rushing past him and leaving the room for a moment. Nux heard a door open and close.

Nux held Bliss, her blue eyes, so happy, looking into his glum.

He didn't like when she got like that. It started gradually; one peck on the cheek instead of two, wanting to curl up by herself instead of cuddle, encouraging Nux to spend more time with Bliss when it really wasn't necessary. Since she started going back to the Pups she'd gotten so distant, a concern that Nux and the Sisters shared alike. She woke up, got ready, went to the Pups, came back to care for Bliss for a few hours, then back to the Pups for dinner, then she returned to the hightower in the evening, often locking herself in the room either alone or with Bliss. She'd taken a liking to having her dinner alone, blaming an “upset stomach” on missing dinner. She'd talked to Nux less and less, kissed him less, sometimes she pretended he wasn't there at all. Everyone was concerned, but no one more so than Nux.

Often, as she would turn her back to him in bed, he'd recall the first time he'd really met her in the cab of the rig. She was so soft, so warm, so sensitive, stop, stop, stop that. Her hand on the side of his head. Now, he thought with a sigh, she would let him stab himself if it meant she got to spend time alone.

She returned, holding some linens and rushing past him. Nux didn't make eye contact with her.

Capable set the linens on the bed, swallowing and calming herself before she spoke.

“It would be good for us,” Capable tried to catch his eye. “It's hard to be intimate when she's in here.”

Nux finally stared at her, cross. “You're going to blame her for that?”

Capable said nothing.

“You've been running away from me, from all of us, since... well, what, a few months ago? You're gonna blame Bliss for what you've been doing to yourself?” Nux was strong, now. Strong after months of feeling small.

Capable still said nothing.

“I try to hug you or kiss you like I used to, like you used to do to me, and it's like I'd never met you, I was a stranger. It's--”

“Nux--”

“No, stop, listen. Please. I've sat here through your tantrums, your silence, your isolation from me and the people who love you. If you hate me, I don't really care about that right now,” he swallowed, his throat constricting. “I care about you. We're all real worried, Capable. You can't blame Bliss, though, you can't...”

Capable met his watery eyes, not moving.

“I don't hate you,” she blinked slowly, her brows furrowing. “I don't hate you.”

“It sure feels like it.”

“Nux...” she rubbed the side of her face with her hand. “Nux, this has been so hard for me... so hard, I don't even... Nux...” her face was buried in her hands now.

Nux didn't know what to do. Bliss was falling asleep in the sling; her daily nap was indeed right about now. He first crossed the room to her crib, placing her in it, then moved to Capable. She looked up for a moment to meet his sympathetic eyes. He sat next to her, the bed moving under his weight. He made no move to touch her though, having done this before. It always backfired.

“Nux, I'm sorry, I'm real sorry...” she ran her hands through her hair. “I'm... I don't know, Nux. I don't know how I feel, I don't know how to fix it.”

“I... I thought you were doing fine,” Nux confessed, slightly guilty from having not noticed her true feelings.

“I was hoping you did,” she admitted. “I thought, I just thought I needed some time, I thought I needed to think and sort things out for myself. I was so tired of people coddling me, so careful... Nux, I've been treated like that my whole life.”

Nux nodded, listening.

“Being pregnant... it wasn't some ecstatic moment for me like it was for you.” Capable let out a breath through her nose, closing her eyes. “I've been living my whole life getting pregnant, losing them... Nux, you never knew about it. I didn't want you to.”

Nux's lips parted. She'd been pregnant before? How could she not tell him? When they'd gotten back, she'd been so sure that she wanted to explore with him, why? She said she was dirty... but she was so clean, look at you, you're beautiful, how can you have gone through so much and be so strong?

“Capable...”

“I'm... struggling, alright? I'm having a hard time,” her voice choked off, the facade finally cracking fully, crumbling to the floor.

Nux wrapped his arms around her, feeling the weight of her push into his chest. He closed his eyes, the quiet interrupted only by her occasional gasps and sighs.

“I'm sorry,” Nux stroked her hair. “I'm sorry I didn't notice.” 

She nodded into his shoulder. “I'm sorry I didn't come to you or the women... I just... I really, it's hard for me. It's hard to talk about how I feel.”

“Why's that? You know I love you,” he matched her quiet tone.

Those words again. So strange to hear them, still. After all this, after all they've done, after Bliss, still so strange. How can he still love me after the way I've treated him?

“I love you too, Nux,” she smiled. “It's not a matter of that. It's just... I don't know what to pin it down to, I don't know why I feel this way... I have everything I could ever want and I sit in this room and cry for no reason and feel like a terrible mother and--”

“Stop that,” Nux said, holding the side of her head.

She did.

“You're not a terrible mother,” Nux soothed. “You're an amazing mother. I should have noticed something wrong, I should have asked. I'm real sorry, I never asked...”

“You shouldn't have to,” Capable said.

They shared each others presence for a moment. Bliss was quiet, and they felt more connected now than they had in the last few months combined.

“I think a nursery will help,” Nux said.

Capable turned her head to look up at him. She let out a breathy laugh.

He wasn't so stubborn all the time after all.  
–

Nux was very sure of one thing: Bliss would grow up to be one mischievous little creature. As he bent down and around, searching, Bliss only stood, balancing on a container of toys.

“I see that evil glint in yer eyes,” Nux joked to her, ruffling pillows to listen for her missing toy. She'd been doing this more recently; she would make it clear that she liked a toy, then crawled around with it, and the very second Nux or someone else turned their back, she'd hide it. They've found toys in her bedding, under furniture, everywhere. This would be fine if she didn't get so grumpy every time she wanted a certain toy and it was nowhere to be found.

Ah, there. 

Nux rolled his eyes as he gripped the jingly chrome toy, pulling it out from between two books.

Bliss looked on joyfully as Nux scooped her up, taking the toy in her hands.

“Dada.”

Nux stopped as if he had an emergency break. His eyes went wide, then a huge grin painted his face.

“You... you said... Capable! Come here!” she was transfixed on her toy now.

Capable rushed into the room to a laughing Nux.

“Capable, she, she called me dad, she said it. Well, it was more like 'dada' but that's the same, right?” Nux was radiating happiness.

“She said it? Like a word?” Capable joined him, smiling as well.

“Yeah!”

“I missed it!” Capable was disappointed but pleased.

“Don't worry,” Nux bounced Bliss who still seemed more interested in the chrome of her toy than anything else, “there will be plenty more.”

–

The Dag held Bliss, comfortable, the nursery filled with gifts they'd received from the citizens of the Citadel. War Boys often sent up shiny trinkets, chrome, knowing from Nux that she liked things that clattered and gleamed; with some baby-proofing they were always Bliss's favorite. She really was Nux's daughter.

“You've gotten so big, little creature,” she mused to her. Her hair had grown in a soft dark brown, curly and long. It would be time for a haircut soon, Toast had said. Not yet, not yet, feel it, it's so soft.

The nursery had taken a lot of work. It started out as drab as the rest of the rooms, but with some love and care, it was filled with toys and books and soft fabrics, perfect for Bliss. She would stand on two feet, leaning against the bookcase. She would dig through containers of toys and spill them on the floor, organize them by some scheme only she knew, then put them back in the container one by one. She would turn the pages of the books Capable and the Sisters read to her, but especially the only one Nux ever read to her.

It was the only one he really knew how to read.

Bliss didn't mind though, liking to hear dad's voice form words from the letters on the page. She liked pictures to most, though, often halting a story to stare at the photo Toast or Cheedo had cut and pasted onto it.

The Dag pulled out a drawer in the dresser, soft pastels and fleece and tulle inside. It had taken a lot of work to provide a wardrobe for the little one, Capable leading the team on that task. She'd known how to sew, she just needed the supplies. 

Bliss lifted her arms up as the Dag slipped on the pink tulle dress, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Bliss, everyone is going to love you. Bliss's blue eyes, so piercing and fierce yet curious and soft with long eyelashes, scanned over the dress and then Dag's hair as she carried her out of the nursery and into the foyer.

“Oh, she's adorable, look at her.”

“Glory, Capable, that's the best dress yet.”

“She's perfect, they're gonna love her.”

The curtain was pushed aside behind them, a peaceful Furiosa extending her greetings. Upon seeing Bliss, her heart fluttered, feeling her head and complimenting her dress though Bliss would undoubtedly be silent in return. She hadn't said any more than the one “dada”, preferring babbling and trying to repeat words to Capable's dismay.

“Everything is ready, they're just waiting on her,” Furiosa said, looking towards Capable and Nux.

“Are the Boys out there?” he asked, the Dag handing Bliss off to him. She'd always picked him, it seemed, whenever she picked favorites.

“You'll have to see,” Furiosa said with a grin.

The group followed Furiosa to the platform deck, guards bowing their heads to the Dignitaries as they passed. There was commotion below, lots of talking and cheering.

This couldn't possibly have gotten that large could it? It was just supposed to be a simple announcement to--

Glory be.

Nux and Capable were greeted with cheers of thousands as they approached the platform deck, Bliss in full view to the spectators. There would be too much noise, Nux thought, she'll get scared, he thought.

She smiled to the crowd below her.

He saw his Boys right front and center, then the marketwomen, then... everyone. Everyone was here. This was impossible. How? How did Furiosa do this?

“Are those... are those Gas Town boys?” Toast asked from behind the couple.

“Gas Town and Bullet Farm Boys came here too... well, some of them,” Furiosa confirmed.

Gas Town and Bullet Farm? How? 

“Furiosa...” Nux peeped, the cheers almost drowning him out.

“All I did was send a single bulletin. They did everything else,” Furiosa said calmly, her eyes indicating she alluded to the crowd below them.

Nux felt his eyes well up, Capable as well. They watched as his Boys raised their fists, V8 symbols flying, cheers from all the Boys and the Wretched, the disadvantaged from all territories joining here to view this new life, this new symbol of a new life for the Citadel and beyond.

“Inheritor!” 

It was a chant now, in-her-it-or, a soft rhythm moving though the crowd. The Sisters stood amazed as well, this outcome not expected in the slightest. How could it be? Something like this was unheard of.

Furiosa stepped up to the platform now, holding her fist up in a request for silence. The crowd's noise died down, respectful, anxious to hear what was to be said.

“It is today that we signify the one year success of Bliss, the child of Dignitary Capable and Dignitary Nux,” Furiosa called out, diplomatic and loud, strong. 

The crowd cheered, only to be calmed again after a moment by another fist.

“This outcome is extremely surprising and we appreciate you all being here,” Furiosa smiled, looking to Nux and Capable and Bliss, “to help us celebrate.”

The crowd was respectful, heeding to the very nervous Nux and Capable that approached the platform, Furiosa resting her hand on Capable's shoulder for a moment before stepping down.

“Nux!” the Boys called.

“That's our Nux!”

“Dignitary Capable!”

“Ay Bliss we'll be impressed when ya can sup up a V8!”

Nux raised his fist at his rowdy boys, their fists raised in solidarity as well with a cheerful cry. He smiled, excited, his nerves easing. Capable grinned as well. They died down then, a slow murmur among them.

“Bliss was a gift to us,” Capable called. “She is healthy, she is growing fast. Your support means the world to us.”

“Yeah, uh,” Nux stuttered. Damn it. “She's the light of my life and I know she's the light of yours too to have joined us here. Thanks.”

“That fuckin' sucked, mate!”

“Can't hold a candle to yer lady!”

Nux laughed, very nervous, hoping Capable would indeed do most of the talking.

“She ain't mine, she's nobody's,” he called down to them, rustling them up even further.

Capable began to speak over the noise.

“Without my Sisters, or as you know them as the Wives...” she blinked slowly, “Bliss would be no where near where she is today.”

The Sisters stepped forward. Applause. Cheer.

“We ask that you continue to support us,” Capable continued, “and keep the Citadel safe, keep it proud, and help it become a place where babies like Bliss are the norm!”

The crowd burst into cheer again.

Thank goodness that's over, Nux thought. 

“Where'd you come up with that?” Nux asked as they stepped away from the platform.

“Furiosa told me what to say.”

“You didn't help me?” Nux stared confused daggers.

“I was hoping it'd come from your heart?” Furiosa turned from him, grinning. 

A year old.

How had it been a year already?

How have I lived that long?

They retreated back to the hightower to descend the staircase. Everyone was begging to see the baby up close, such healthy youth so rare. This would be a long day.

Nux had hoped that he could just celebrate with his...

What exactly are they?

Capable is his love, but the others? They're more of a team than anything else. But it was more than that.

Nux squinted as the sun bore into his eyes, guards protecting them from the crowd that rushed forward to see, the War Boys first. They were unpainted, Nux noticed. He loved his Boys. No way would they have stripped in front of the Gas Town and Bullet Farm Boys if they didn't feel they absolutely had to.

Toast and Cheedo played with Bliss as they settled at a small table; they were to be out for thirty minutes and no longer, the heat too much to handle for Bliss.

Nux watched Toast and Cheedo, but he also watched the Dag who talked to passerby, and Furiosa who was currently insisting that the Wretched in front of her stop bowing to her.

All of these people, they cared about him. Even the Boys in front of him, who were being shuffled out of the way to make space for the next round of visitors, had been so surprisingly supportive.

They were his family.


	6. Year Two To Year Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! So, thanks again for reading and giving your feedback and kudos. I know the direction of where I want the story to go, but it's a bit hard to flesh out when I don't want this fic to be too long, so keep that in mind. I'm having a lot of fun with this. Thanks again for everything my tiny fandom friends.

“Daddy, up up!” her little hands reached towards Nux, searching the newly added toy bins. He looked down at her then, his heart falling, sighing.

“I can try, Bliss,” he bent down, his legs tired and weary. He could feel his arms struggle to even grip her, and, though he was nervous, he picked her up. She giggled, her arms wrapping around his neck and her legs around his chest.

“You like being up, huh?” Nux strained, forcing a smile.

“Up!” she repeated, bouncing on Nux's already shaky foundation. But he held on, don't drop her, don't drop her.

Capable walked in then, surprised to see Nux holding her. He had been so weak, lately, struggling to keep up in the garage. The Boys had worried, the Sisters worried, and Nux had worried... but he kept it away from himself. 

He worried, but he wasn't surprised. 

Capable nodded knowingly and took Bliss from him, her little hands gripping Capable's hair. Nux breathed out appreciatively, gaining what little bearing he had to stand.

“I'll take her to Remedy, just... just rest,” she nodded to Nux, who swallowed and let his brows furrow.

Nux sat on the floor of the nursery after Capable left, his head feeling light and his muscles sore. He rested his head in his hands, swallowing, his skin cold and clammy. Glory, glory, please... 

He felt Larry and Barry, he felt his breaths get shorter and shallower, harder. He sat up, his back leaning against the shelf for desperately needed support.

“Glory be...” Nux gasped, cursing himself, his body, and his fate.

–

“Clean bill of health,” Remedy chimed, Bliss sitting on the medical table. “Blood's good, development is normal, all good.” She hadn't shed a single tear at the immunization she received; a tough cookie, Capable thought.

Immunizations were gaining traction in the hightower and beyond. Remedy had spent the last year with that as her main project: documenting the molecular makeup of the diseases collected from the Wretched, and trying to come up with some sort of protection against them. Often all they needed was water and food and clean air, but for most of the growths and tumors there was some underlying cause, usually toxic radiation. She implemented an immunization program for all newborns about three months previous, and already the success was visible.

Bliss came to Capable, wanting to sit in her lap. Remedy checked some things off on papers, then turned to Capable.

“You need something else?” Remedy blinked.

“Ye-yeah. Nux, he's uh--”

“We talked about this, Capable...” Remedy crossed her arms.

“I know, I know... but... isn't there anything you can give him? Just for now?”

“He's already lined up for stimulants, something to keep him going, but that's all I can give him... it's all we have,” she sat next to Capable now, Bliss fumbling with the toy she brought with.

Capable looked to the floor, her lips pursed.

“I'm sorry.”

–

“It dark,” Bliss murmured, her silhouette in her bed glowing yellow from the nightlight. 

“You got your nightlight,” Nux said softly to her, groggy. “And you got Whiskers.”

Bliss hugged the stuffed cat close to her, gray and white and black, just like in the storybook's pictures. Just like daddy.

Bliss didn't seem convinced. She didn't like her new bed very much, and though she slept through the night now, often she woke up, and with waking up in the dark, comes a fear of it.

Nux sighed, getting down on his knees and resting his hand on Bliss's head.

“Nothing can hurt you,” Nux comforted. “Mommy and daddy are right there, nothing's gonna come get you.”

Bliss still seemed uneasy, petting Whiskers. 

“Can you try and go to sleep?” Nux asked, his eyebrows raising.

Bliss shook her head.

“Why not?” he smiled then.

“The monsters,” Bliss peeped. Her voice was still so new, and though she couldn't form sentences, she was very articulate.

“What monsters? There's no monsters here,” Nux then tilted his head down as if he were going to tell Bliss a secret. “Those live in the garage.”

Bliss grinned. “No.”

“You're right, they're like monsters sometimes though, huh? They're scary looking and mean, right?”

Bliss giggled then. “No.”

“Well, good thing you think that then. 'Cus those are the only monsters around here.”

Bliss kept smiling, seemingly feeling better. Her eyelids began to drift, heavy.

The War Boys had visited often, helping Nux and Capable when one of them had to run out or work. Flaps was always the first to step up, nominating himself as the honorary babysitter of the group, still fawning over the two-year-old Bliss. He'd play all sorts of games with her, help her play games with her toys, all the things that daddy does as well. She missed daddy and mommy, but she liked Flaps too; he let her jump on him and run around. Bliss was never afraid of the Boys, though she had been hesitant with seeing Nux painted. For a while, she didn't quite understand that painted Nux and unpainted Nux were the same person. 

There was a day when she wanted to be painted, too. “Clay, clay,” she said, pulling on dad's pants. He didn't know what she meant until she rubbed her bare chest like Nux did when he spread the clay on his chest. They compromised, Bliss settling for a light dusting of flour on her nose. Just like daddy.

Nux rubbed her head, standing. Her face fell as he advanced towards the door.

“Stay.”

Nux stopped in his tracks, smiling as he turned on his heels.

“Stay? Here?”

Bliss nodded.

Nux let out a heavy breath through his nose, approaching the now smiling Bliss.

“Scoot,” he said, Bliss listening and taking her soft pink blanket and Whiskers to the other side of her twin bed. It was the smallest one they could find.

Nux lay down next to her, his arm nestled under her pillow. Nux's body barely fit, though Bliss didn't seem to mind, cuddling up to his chest and laying her head there. He felt her chest rise and fall, rise and fall, slowly now, slow. She was asleep.

I can die right now, right this second, and have zero regrets.

–

“You sure she'll like it?”

“Yeah mate, lookit it! How could she not?”

“It is real shiny, she likes shiny stuff.”

“Will Nux 'n Capable be alright with it?”

“I'm sure, why not?”

“Well Nux always goes on 'n on 'bout how dangerous stuff is, ain't this thing dangerous?”

“Nah, it'll be great. Cover it up, he's comin' soon.”

Nux emerged from the clay room, freshly painted and ready for a day in the sun, or maybe in the garage or Repair room or with the blood donations, wherever he was needed, really. He picked up a chart that hung on the wall, inspecting which tasks were done and which still needed to be done, his eyes tracing across a very productive day so far.

“Ay, Nux!” Flaps called from the garage, Nux's head snapping up to meet him.

“Ay!” he called back, excited to feel the presence of the garage. He felt lightheaded almost all the time now, but he'd gotten used to it, the sickness was part of him whether he fought it or not. There were good and bad days; today was a good day.

“We gotcha somethin'!” a different Boy called to him, excited.

Nux furrowed his brows. Something for him? From his Boys? He demanded nothing from them except respect and to not kill each other.

“Well, it ain't for you really,” Flaps corrected.

“Yeah, yeah,” the other Boy pushed Flaps, only to receive one in return. They were playing; they would always be Boys at heart.

Nux approached them, noticing the canvas-covered mound that their feet. “Yeah?” Nux smiled, greeted by clapping handshakes, how are ya, pleasantries.

“Right-o, alright, so we wanted to give 'lil Bliss somethin' for her second birthday,” Flaps announced, much to Nux's surprise.

“Ay, you don't hafta do that,” Nux interjected.

“Shuddup for like one second, mate,” Flaps joked with a push. “She's onna the only ones in the whole Citadel that actually knows 'er birthday, so we should celebrate, ya know?”

“She turned two half a year ago,” Nux laughed. “Yer a bit late.”

“Yeah, well, it took some time. And care.” Nux raised his eyebrows at the shifty-eyed Flass. “Alright, fine, we fucked it up like twelve times, thanks to fuckin' ruddy hands over 'ere.”

“Ay! I told you I shake, that ain't my-”

“Stop! Stop. So, you made her a present? Why ya givin' it to me then?” Nux interrupted before it turned into another brawl.

“Well you always goin' on about safety and rules 'n shit, so we figured instead of just haulin' it up there we'd ask ya first if it was alright.”

Nux smiled. Knowing his boys, they made her a flame thrower and to them it would be safe because “fire disinfects.” 

Flaps grabbed the cloth and pulled with exaggerated showmanship, revealing the beaut that lay underneath.

“Whoa, Boys,” Nux's jaw dropped. He was legitimately impressed. “Where'd ya get the chrome for this?”

“We scrapped it together from little pieces we couldn't use,” Flaps said proudly.

Nux bent down to it, his hand running along the chrome. “It's real chrome, guys, real shine. She'll love it. She'll absolutely love it.”

“Ah das great, mate. We ain't put an engine in it yet but we figured you wouldn't want that so--”

“Later. We'll put in the engine later.”

“Just a small one, no real power.”

Nux laughed. This was the last thing he had anticipated from his Boys. They had never made anything like this before, how did they even know how?

“Bring it up to the sand,” Nux stood. “I'll go get 'er.”

The boys cheered and clamored to pick it up, not too heavy but not exactly light. They scrabbled to walk up the stairs with it, and set it down on the orange sand shaded by the hightower.

Nux practically ran to the hightower, still painted. He was out of breath by the time he reached the highest floor, where the Dag and Capable were playing with Bliss, some make-believe game with her dolls, crafted with love.

“Is something wrong?” Capable asked. He usually never came up painted, nonetheless out of breath. Though he grinned.

“No, no, comere, grab Bliss for me,” Nux was excited, the boyish enthusiasm returning to him. It made Capable smile. She scooped up Bliss, the Dag staying back, and they descended the staircase to return to the sand level.

“Nux!” the Boys called, seeing him emerge from the hightower. He scrambled towards them, Bliss making out little words as she bounced with mom's steps. Nux, Nux, Nux. Dad!

Finally, the glint of chrome met their eyes. The sun gleamed off of the shiny object, the two Boys standing near it, proud and excited.

“Ay, alright, it should go just fine,” Flaps patted Nux's back, then made a funny face at Bliss, who giggled. 

“Glory be,” Capable gasped, smiling. 

The chrome of the trike stood out against the orange sand, its tires huge compared to its small body. Its chrome would stay cool, shaded under black protectors that kept the hot sun away from Bliss's skin. Bliss was set down into the sand, her bare feet digging into it as she ran towards the trike.

“How's it move?” Nux asked, Bliss very curious and touching all over. The handlebars, the seat, the tires.

“Well there's these things called 'pedals',” Flaps said, “and it's like you're the engine 'cuz your feet make it go. Here, like this.” He bent down and pushed down on one of the pedals, propelling the bike forward. Bliss followed it in the short jolt.

“Thought those were on flowers,” Nux was amazed.

“You're thinking of petals, Nux,” Capable giggled. 

A confused look from Nux. “A-alright.”

Bliss giggled, looking up to Flaps. “Flaps!”

“Yeah, 'das me!” he cooed, bending down to her. 

“Help 'er get innit, see if she likes it,” the other Boy said.

Flaps picked her up from her armpits, sliding her body into the seat. Her legs were the perfect length for the pedals, something the Boys had worries about, but now they congratulated themselves on their estimate.

“Kick the pedals, like this,” Flaps leaned over her, pushing her feet into the black pedals with his hands. The trike jumped forward, her hands on the handlebars, her eyes gleaming.

She continued the movement, jerky, but she did it. The trike glided across the sand, slow, to the amazed eyes of her onlookers.

“Ah, she'll be a regular driver real soon!” Flaps clapped, Nux laughing loudly with him.

“Are you sure it's safe?” Capable piped up. She was excited as well, happy to see Bliss's new toy.

“Yeah, yeah, it can't burn 'er. No engine in it or anything, tires can't pop, they too small, and it won't go very fast at all,” Flaps comforted.

“She ain't even gotta be a lancer first, bloody lucky 'lil squirt,” Flaps continued. He then bent down to her, who how just wiggled the handlebars from side to side. “The rest of us had to be lancers before we could be drivers, and look at you, you already got yer own rig. Though I guess we could put a lancer's perch on it, maybe some poles for Pole Katz...”

“No!” Nux laughed, a hearty laugh from Flaps returned.

Bliss continued to pedal, getting the hang of it. 

“This is amazing, thank you, Boys,” Capable grinned, her hand patting Flaps's back.

“Chrome!” Bliss chimed.

–

“Why is it like that?” Bliss ran her hand across the scar on Nux's chest, her other hand running along her own.

“Well,” Nux swallowed. How do I approach this? “Back when dad was a little kid, all his friends were scarring themselves up like this,” he ran his hand over his chest, “and dad wanted something super shine, so his friends would think he was shine too. You know, like that rabbit in that one story?”

“He turned blue,” she smiled, “because his friends did too.”

“Yeah! It's like that.”

“I want to.”

“You want what?”

“I want my chest like yours.”

He held his breath for a second. “No, Bliss, no you don't.”

She was confused, but was interrupted from asking more questions when Nux helped her put a shirt on. She's gotten so verbal lately, always talking to someone or something, asking questions.

“I like baths,” she said, wiggling into her shirt.

“Good, they're good for you,” Nux smiled, taking a smaller towel and ruffling it through her curly hair. The only sound for a while was their breaths and the ruffling of clothes.

“Why is it hot?” she asked.

“Are you hot? It's pretty cool in here.”

“Outside.”

“Ah. Well, we're in the desert, so it's hot. When it's nighttime, it's cooler, remember?”

She nodded.

“C'mon. Let's get breakfast before we go out,” Nux stood, his hand on the back of her head as he opened the door.

–

“What's he do?” she asked, the puzzle before her unfinished.

“What does who do?” Capable slid one piece of the puzzle closer to Bliss.

“Dad.”

Capable smiled. “He works in the garage with his friends, you know that.”

“But what does he do?”

“He builds and fixes cars,” Capable slid the puzzle piece into place to the amusement of Bliss.

“Chrome,” she smiled, bouncing.

“Yeah, chrome,” Capable let out a breathy laugh. “Lots of it.”

“I want to color,” Bliss said as the puzzle was finished. Cheedo had helped copy some pictures from books onto some thick paper that she cut into big puzzle pieces.

“We can color,” Capable grinned, leaving the puzzle there as she rose to retrieve the coloring supplies from Bliss's room. They had received crayons, well, colored wax, from some very generous marketwoman. Wax was extremely sought after because candles lasted much longer than lanterns, so her sacrifice was not without great appreciation. Bliss loved them, she colored with no abandon, telling tales that could only come from such a young mind.

Capable set down the supplies, Bliss shuffling over to them. She smiled as she dug in, searching for whatever color she had in her mind.

Grey, black, and blue.

She started to doodle, Capable's mind elsewhere. She had been feeling better seeing how well Bliss was doing, how well Nux was taking care of her and the support they've gotten from everyone. It took some time, but she and Nux were better as well, their relationship growing stronger every day. It's to be expected; neither of them had any idea what they were doing in a relationship. It would take effort and care to construct something meaningful-- a goal they both kept close to their hearts.

Capable was snapped back to this reality when Bliss flipped her paper up to Capable's face. She had to lean her head back to see the figure on the page.

Grey skin with black eyes, a torso and a head, and two black legs sticking out from the bottom of it. Though interrupting the monochrome scheme was a big scribble of blue on the middle of the figure's torso. 

“That's daddy,” Capable smiled. “But... why's his chest blue?”

“He said he turned blue, like the bunny,” Bliss tilted her head, lowering the paper.

Capable had no idea what she was talking about. There was a story she read to her, about the white bunny that turned blue because all his friends wanted him to, but--

Oh.

“I see,” Capable nodded. 

Bliss continued doodling, so fiercely independent now. She'd been refusing help dressing lately, wanting to take baths by herself to the disagreement of Capable, and playing alone. She was never one for tantrums, but she cried less, now. She wanted to explore more, learn about the world. She still loved to cuddle, though, often playing with Capable's hair or nuzzling into Nux's shoulder. She asked why the sky was blue, how strawberries grew, why Toast's hair was short like hers but no one else's. She liked to see the greenhouse and touch the leaves, the fruits and vegetables.

Flaps would come and watch her, play with her, more frequently. Capable often had to go assist the Nurturers with the Pups, as they were down one, the others stricken by illness. Flaps would take her outside more than not, Bliss preferring to color or play with blocks with Capable. Flaps was rougher with her than Nux was, chasing her, throwing her and catching her, general roughhousing. Bliss loved it. She'd always been excited to see Flaps, running to his arms and enjoying how he lifted her up above him.

A quiet evening was just what both of them needed.

–

Capable often brought her with to see the Pups, hoping she would make friends. The odds were against her: she was only five, while the Pups were generally between seven and twelve. The Pups were all boys, and this was what worried Capable the most. Her first day there, though, and her worried were dispelled. She'd play their games, throwing a ball just as good as them, she'd wrestle and romp. 

That is, until she came home with a black eye.

“What the fuck?” Nux rushed to her, holding a baggy with cold slurry on her eye.

“Don't curse around her, she'll copy you...” the Dag droned, holding a cloth.

“I... I don't care. What happened? What happened to her?” he crouched down to see her, trying to catch her gaze that she kept from him. 

The Dag reached to take the slurry bag from her eye, wrapping it in the cloth.

“Glory!” Nux exclaimed, seeing the bruising that surrounded her left eye. “Who hurt you?”

“Nobody,” she peeped, still not looking at him.

Nux was livid. Not with Bliss or the Dag, or... anyone really. He was ready to brawl anyone who tried anything, though. Who hurt his Bliss? Who dared?

“It was an accident, Nux,” Capable said, emerging from her bedroom into the foyer.

“What do you mean 'an accident?” Nux stood to meet her, almost confrontational if he weren't approaching Capable. 

“One of the Pups was just a bit too rough,” Capable stood still, the angry mass that is a perturbed Nux almost storming towards her.

“I told you it was a bad idea,” Nux said, his voice as hushed as he could make it. “I told you they'd be too rough. That's how they are, that's how we all were, there's no--”

“Nux,” she put her hands on his shoulders, grounding him. He took a deep breath, nodding, his mania calming with her firm grip.

“Sorry, sorry...” he breathed, turning back to Bliss who met him with tears in her eyes.

“Daddy,” she started to cry, the Dag looking to him and rubbing Bliss's back.

He rushed to her, crouching down so he looked up to her, cradling her head in his hand and reaching up to wipe her tears. 

“Daddy, daddy, I'm sorry. I'm sorry,” she cried, Capable meeting eyes with the Dag.

“Sorry? Sorry for what?” he cooed.

“I made you angry, I'm sorry.”

“No, no, Bliss, no, you didn't make me angry, shhh,” he moved to sit next to her and lifted her up to sit in his lap. “I'm not mad at you.”

“You yelled at me.”

“I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, I'm not mad at you, Bliss,” he brushed the hair out of her face.

She calmed then, feeling his fingers brush her hair. Capable approached the both of them, then, swallowing.

“Now,” Nux placed her back on the couch, sitting beside her. “What happened?”

“They play this game,” Capable chimed in, “where they pile up on each other, and--”

“Joe Pile, I know it,” Nux smiled. “Who was the Joe on the bottom?” he turned his head to Bliss, who now looked up to him with glee.

“Scraps! He didn't count fast enough,” Bliss cheered, the slurry returning to her eye.

“Ah, I was always the Joe... I can't count very fast. But you must've been on top 'cuz you're such a good counter,” Nux patted her back. “Did you have fun?”

She nodded enthusiastically.

“Everything is fine,” Capable sat next to Bliss on the other side of Nux.

“Yeah, everything's fine,” Nux grinned, Bliss meeting it with her own. “Wouldn't be my girl if she couldn't take a tumble, right?”

–

Capable was staying overnight with the Pups, two Nurturers now gone. They needed someone to make sure they didn't get into trouble; often they'd try to sneak out to muddle around and make trouble.

So, Nux adopted bedtime duty.

“You gotta brush your teeth,” Nux insisted, Bliss currently running around him half-naked. She'd strewn her pajama top somewhere in the nighttime hyperactivity. Nux threw his head back, her giggles antagonizing.

“Bliss!” he called to her when she started to take off her pants. He rushed to her, scooping her up. “What's with you and getting naked all the time?”

She giggled, tapping her hands against his chest. “You don't wear clothes.”

“I wear clothes!” he touched his forehead to her, carrying her to the bathroom. 

“Pants only,” she grinned as he set her down on the step stool so she could reach the sink.

“Yeah, but you gotta wear more than pants,” he said.

She pouted, her hair still wet from the bath. She grabbed her toothbrush, something Nux had only recently learned about as well. She wet it and pasted it, rubbing it against the teeth that she had.

“Thank you,” Nux sighed, turning from her to go find her clothes.

She finished up, climbing down. She settled down now, the excitement of Nux being with her tonight dying down. She felt sleepy and ready for bed.

Nux was thankful for this, helping her get dressed for the third time that night, and turned to leave the bathroom.

“My hair.”

Nux stopped and turned.

“Your hair?”

“Mommy puts my hair up at night,” she rocked on her feet.

Nux looked around the room. He didn't know what that meant. Then he did: when he'd come and wake her up in the morning, her hair was in... what did Capable call it? A ponytail. What's a pony, and why's it got a tail, and why's her hair look like it?

“I uh... I don't know how...” Nux kept his eyes on the hairbrush on the counter. 

Bliss nodded, starting to move towards him, looking downtrodden.

“But I can try!” he offered, Bliss's previously distraught face brightening.

He sat on her bed with her nestled between his legs. She sat as he examined his tools that she'd laid out to him. Alright, a hair tie. That kind of looks like an o-ring. A hair brush, ok, I've seen Capable use that, you just run it through. Some clips which he snapped between his fingers, pink and green. How does she use these?

Bliss was patient as he tried to gather her hair, piling it on top of her head. He twisted her hair with the tie every which way. How is this o-ring supposed to make the... ponytail thing? He looped her hair through it after brushing it. Alright, step one done. Now, do I... twist it like this? Yeah, alright, and loop it through again. Right-o, it's going good, there we go. He dropped the hair from his hand, her curly hair cascading to the nape of her neck. He snapped the pink and green clips to her scalp, quite randomly, but Bliss seemed pleased.

“Alright!” Nux was possibly more excited than Bliss was. 

Bliss hopped up to her feet, turning to Nux and wrapping her little arms around his neck. He smiled, sighing into her head. 

“Thank you, daddy.”

He pulled her closer to him and squeezed her lightly.

“Can you read a story?” she climbed into her bed.

Nux swallowed. He'd been trying to learn how to read properly, Capable helping him nearly every night with a new children's story, and he was indeed getting the hang of it. Would he be able to read a whole different book to her, though?

“Yeah, yeah, go pick one out,” he smiled, sitting on her bed.

She beamed and reached as high as she could at the bookshelf, gripping a pink-lined one and holding it close to her chest as she bounded back to Nux.

He held it in his hands. He wasn't able to read the title. He knew “the”, and sounded out the words after it, only really an estimate.

“It's alright, daddy,” she sat next to him and cradled herself in his chest so she could see the book, “I have to go slow, too.”

Nux's chest hurt. She was so wise, beyond her years. She must have learned the compassion from her mother. Thank goodness.

“Are you sure? It might take me a bit,” he was nervous. He didn't want Bliss to see him like this. He'd been the one to push her to read, to write, to be better than him. He never received such opportunities and it surely bit him in the ass now. 

Bliss only nodded, Nux sighing.

“The... ha-happ-happy. The happy... Tu—turt--”

“Turtle,” Bliss beamed. She got to help daddy today. She loved to help daddy, helping him clean up or helping him walk when he didn't feel up to it.

“Turtle. The Happy Turtle,” Nux smiled. “Thanks.”

Bliss only snuggled in closer.

–

The engine roared to life to the very amused laughs of Bliss, who sat in the seat of the rig, her hands gripping the wheel. Her knuckles turned white, her pupils constricted, adrenaline ran through her with every vibration that coursed through her feet. She was too young to know it yet, only six, but she would soon need this feeling just to survive.

“No.”

Nux was firm, his arms crossed. Flaps and another War Boy threw their arms up, what? How can you say that? Look at her, she's so happy. Mate, lookit that smile, she's a natural.

“No, no, no way.”

Bliss looked on sadly as Flaps disengaged the engine on her newly upgraded and grown trike, the seat set back to accommodate her growing legs. 

“Dad--”

“No. No, get off now,” he rushed over to pick her up, but she squirmed. 

“The Pups go out on 'em all the time,” she whined. 

Flaps and the other Boys had constructed three more trikes like Bliss's. She had been the envy of the Pups, and now that they were older, there were engines involved. Bliss had looked on from the hightower as they kicked up sand, Capable combing her hair with her fingers.

“I don't care,” Nux insisted.

Bliss pouted, not breaking eye contact. She'd learned that from the Boys, no doubt. A challenge.

“Why not?” she finally said, the tension between them purely parental.

“It's too dangerous,” Nux didn't even blink.

“But they--”

“I don't care.”

Her features twisted then, and, swinging her legs off and hopping down to the garage floor, she started to cry.

Nux swallowed, Larry and Barry biting him. His head hurt, whether it was from his illness or upsetting Bliss, he didn't know. 

“Ay, mate,” Flaps offered, sensing the conflict Nux felt in his own head. “She'll be right.”

“Nux, we were ridin' cars by the time we were Inducted. And that's what, like, only two years ahead of her? She'd be fine.”

“You're goin' on about how dangerous everythin' is all the time. You forgettin' we live in a fuckin' wasteland?”

Nux looked at the trike, then at his Boys, then to the exit.

It seemed like Nux was always saying no to her. She wanted to play with dad's tools, she wanted (again) to paint herself up, she wanted to go on drives with him, she wanted to wear big baggy pants like dad, she wanted to take off her shirt, it seemed like a never-ending bombard of “no”. He'd gotten used to it, the guilt from it placated by Capable's assurance that, yes, it's necessary to tell her no. 

He'd seen her storm out of the garage. He knew she would be safe; no one in the Citadel would dare to hurt the Inheritor. She'd liked to wander, to visit the marketwomen, to listen to the Dag in the greenhouse. She was so mature for her age, so introspective. She liked to think; with a new understanding of emotions, came a lot of thinking.

–

Capable settled into Nux's chest, his arm wrapped around her shoulder as they lay in bed. She smiled, feeling the sweat on her brow cool. 

“Nux,” she breathed, kissing the skin of his chest that she could reach. His heart slowed, the adrenaline soaked back in. 

“Glory, Capable...” he leaned his head into the pillow.

Silence then, their breaths slowing and the aftershocks of their orgasms glided over them and settling into the room.

Intimacy had never been something Nux even toyed with the idea of, before he met Capable. To rut is to breed, and breeding was forbidden among the half-lives. Though now he knew that sex was more, sex was something so powerful it gave him a break from Larry and Barry and the growing pains in his back and legs. The pain settled in again, nesting like a wasp.

“Nux,” Capable whispered into the dark.

“Yeah?” he responded.

“How much longer?” her voice was scratchy, raspy.

Nux let out a long sigh. “I don't know.”

Capable nodded into his shoulder. 

“It doesn't matter,” he said. “Why are you so focused on how much longer?”

“I... I was thinking of how best to approach it with Bliss.”

He held his breath. Why had she decided on now to breach this subject?

“It's only fair to her, Nux.”

He nodded. She was five years old, she noticed when daddy wouldn't be able to hold her or play with her, she noticed when he needed to sleep that day. He didn't know what to do about it-- he didn't want to know how much longer he had to live, he didn't want to know if the hardest day of the week would be his last.

Nux's death loomed in every moment he spent with Capable or Bliss. It was in every short breath he took, every stumble, every night fever and every tightening of his throat. 

He didn't know what to do.


	7. Year Seven to Year Ten

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! So there's a needle warning for this chapter. I'm no doctor but I am a nursing student and while the operation depicted here isn't used anymore I imagine it would be popular in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
> 
> Violence in this chapter, some darker stuff, but ends on a good note. Promise. Bit longer than usual.
> 
> Menstruation mention this chapter.
> 
> Do you know how many times I typed the Dag's name as "the Fag"??? Why does the F key have to be next to the D key, haha.
> 
> Thanks for reading! Please let me know what you think. The next chapters will be harder to write because past age ten daughters tend to try to find themselves and blah blah blah, so expect some angsty emotional tween-dom misery that we all know and love.
> 
> Tumblr: nympsycho (thank you for the kind messages! They brighten my days.)

“I still don't get it,” Nux rested his forehead into his hand, his elbow on the table. 

“Dad,” she traced the pen on the paper again, making numbers. “It's just addition. You take five,” she drew a five, “and you add two,” she drew a plus sign and a two under it, “and you get seven.”

“Alright, so if you had five bolts and two bolts, and you put 'em in a pile, the pile would have seven,” he nodded, Bliss smiling in return.

“Yeah,” she breathed. Her blue eyes met with his, tired, dull. He hadn't learned math until Bliss decided she wanted to teach him. Help him. Watch this, daddy, do you know how?

Nux gripped the back of her neck gently, a very War Boy behavior for affection. She'd done it to him and the Pups, and was very pleased when Nux had started to do it to her. She leaned into his hand, then into his lips when he kissed her forehead.

“Why are you so cold?” she looked up to him. She was seven years old now, so independent. Her personality shined through every day, through her gleaming smiles and vivid stories. She was rough and tough, she loved the grease of the garage, often begging to go stay with dad that day. She had so many opinions about so many things; orange is better than pink, reading is better than math, raspberries are better than strawberries. She liked the roar of the engines.

Once, when she'd visited the Boys with Nux, there was a pod of Gas Town Boys coming for them for seemingly no reason. It turned out to be a mixup with trade schedules, but in the heat of excitement, the Boys had burst with rowdiness, ready for battle. Bliss had gotten caught up with it, Flaps swooping her up and shoving her into the bustle of the War Boy craziness. She loved the black and white rushing past her, loud, angry, excited. Testosterone. She'd been upset when Nux scooped her right back out, feeling the need to return ever since. Nux had to deal with Bliss wanting to put herself in dangerous situations all the time.

And now, Nux had to face the thing that he'd dreaded the most.

“Daddy's sick,” he swallowed, keeping his hand on the back of her neck. “You know that.”

“But why cold?” she asked again.

Nux sighed. “Bliss,” he leaned in to kiss her forehead again. He didn't want to cry, not in front of her. She didn't need that. “Do you remember Whir?”

Bliss looked up to him, her features falling. “Yeah.”

“Do you remember when... before he left, he started to not want to play? When you shoved him into the Joe pile and he cried?”

She nodded slowly, guilty, unbeknownst to Nux.

“Whir... he got real weak, you know? He started out real strong, and he had to...”

“He stopped coming,” Bliss was quiet.

“Yeah, he stopped coming. He couldn't run, or play, or...” Nux swallowed, feeling his throat tighten.

“And then he died.”

Nux was surprised at how forward she was, his eyebrows raising and meeting hers. She didn't seem to quite grasp what it meant, no particular emotion to be found there. 

“Yeah,” Nux breathed. “Do you know what that means?”

Bliss looked around, then settled back into Nux's gaze. “Mommy said it means he isn't coming back.”

Nux nodded. “Whir was in a lot of pain. He tried his best though, you know.”

“Whir was sick like you?” Bliss's lips parted.

Nux was the one to look away from her then, swallowing back the emotion that forced its way there. “I'm sick, maybe not like Whir, but I am sick.”

Bliss's brows furrowed. “Daddy...” she murmured. “Are you going to not come back?”

Nux's breathing hitched, feeling the tears form in his eyes that he so desperately tried to push back. He pulled her close to him, pursing his eyes shut in a futile attempt to push all of this way.

She hugged him back, her own eyes closing. She didn't fully understand yet, she didn't understand death. She understood that dad was sick, but before today... she didn't understand what that meant.

“Bliss,” he was choked off by his own emotion, “Bliss, you have to try and understand...”

“Daddy, it's okay,” she patted his back, feeling him cry. 

He parted from her then, his head feeling too light and his chest hurting a bit too much. Son of a bitch, son of a bitch, not now, not here. Where is Capable? Please, come take her, please, she can't see this.

He threw his face into his hands, a choked breath reeling in his cries. Fuck. Fuck, fuck. What do I do?

“Bliss,” he finally breathed out. He looked out to her with red eyes, meeting her own confused and watery eyes. “You have to go find mom.”

She nodded. She was scared, he could tell. She was scared and confused. She rushed out the door, her curly hair snapping around her head as she turned the corner.

Well, I fucked that up.

He let himself go then, finally letting out a pained cry, crushing his forehead into his hands. He shook, the cold sweat coming from his skin chilling him but the fever inside boiling him. He had tried so hard, so hard. It was getting so much worse by the day, the sickness taking over his body and his mind slowly but surely.

Capable rushed in, Bliss nowhere to be seen. Nux heard her though, from the hallway. What's happening to daddy? Is he okay? Is he going away? What's happening? She was crying. The Dag's soothing drone interrupting her as Capable closed the door.

“Capable, glory...” he sobbed, Capable rushing over to wrap her arm around his clammy shoulder. 

“I can go get your stimulants,” she whispered into his scalp.

“No, no, it's not that, Capable...” he gasped, moving his hands from his face to his forehead.

She kissed his head, sighing, her eyes closing.

“She can't go through this, Capable. She can barely handle when one of the Pups is out sick for a day, how the fuck is she supposed to handle her fucking dad dying?” he leaned into her, her warmth soothing though he burned on the inside.

“What did you say?” Capable ran her hand up and down his arm, comforting.

“I tried to say that I was sick,” he swallowed, his eyes meeting the ground. “I tried to say I was like Whir.”

“Ah, Nux... she won't understand. Not yet. She can't.”

He shook his head, barely keeping it in. 

“I didn't... I didn't mean to, Capable. I didn't mean to scare her. Capable...”

She shushed him, continuing to rub his arm, feeling his breaths shallow, slow, relax. He calmed down, his shaking relenting. 

“What do I do?” Nux breathed, drying his face.

“Whatever you can.”

–

She swung the bat, the ball hitting it and flying over the Pup's heads. One dove after it, trying to catch it as she sprinted towards first base, the boys groaning as she slid into safety.

“How are you so good at this?” the pitcher yelled. “You're a girl!”

She pursed her lips, trying to catch her breath as she stared daggers at Cavity.

“What do you mean by that?” she called, her hands on her hips.

“She ain't even painted. What's with that?” the Pup on first base yelled, looking to his fellow Pups over Bliss's head.

“My dad doesn't want me to,” she crossed her arms. “You're all just mad that I play fletch-catch better than you!”

They started rallying around her, hey, that's not true. A girl can't be better than us! Why are you even here? No one wants you on the team anyway. 

She was surrounded then, stepping back but tripping on the base under her heels, falling to the sand. They laughed, called her a cur, a shirk. She stood back up, and, with fury in her eyes, cracked her forehead into Cavity's.

He grinned, a growl escaping as he pushed his head back, their eyes meeting in an intense stare. A challenge. Dominance.

“You think you can talk to me like that?” she growled, her voice low and deep. She'd seen the Boys do this all time time, sometimes over the stupidest things.

“And why not?” he challenged, his green eyes piercing against her blue.

“Because I,” she pushed him to the ground, rendering oohs and whoa's from the crowd of Pups, “am better than you.”

He laughed heartily, stumbling back to his feet. “Better than me? At what? Being a fuckin' breeder?”

She breathed toughly out of her nose, her eyes widening and her fists clenching. She called out then, a deep cry that she'd mimicked from one of the Boys. She advanced towards him, and before he had time to move, he was tackled to the ground, a fist to his face.

“You know,” he spat out after she retracted her fist, “I ain't ever meet my daddy. But I'm pretty sure he lived longer than a month.”

She screamed, slamming her fist into his face, bloodying his eyebrow.

The other Pups were excited. Fight! Fight! Get 'er! Cavity, get 'er!

After another punch he reached up and pulled her hair, shoving her face into the sand next to him. She squirmed, jamming her knee into his gut, and he let go. He pushed her shoulder into the sand, climbing on top of her, and jammed his fist into her nose, sending her face into the sand once more.

She opened her eyes, reaching up and grabbing his fist. She growled once more, slamming his fist behind her, and pushed him off of her. 

“Hey! Hey! Cavity!” a voice called from the distance as he regained his dominance, his knee in her elbow and his weight keeping her pinned. He landed another fist into the other side of her face, crying out loudly, spitting on her. She squirmed, but it was futile.

A tan hand grabbed Cavity's raised fist, pulling him off of Bliss. Bliss reached up to feel her face; it was sticky and wet.

“What the fuck are you doing?” the Nurturer screamed in his face. Bliss sat up, breathing heavy. “Don't you know who the fuck you're messing with?”

“Just 'cuz she's a girl don't mean she ain't get beat,” he growled to the woman.

She sent an open palm across his face. Bliss looked on in disbelief.

“You fucked with the wrong kid,” she almost laughed. “Good one, good one.” She pushed him away, obviously having dealt with the Pup's roughness before. She knew what the Pups could handle.

She bent down to Bliss in the sand. She hadn't shed a single tear out of pain or fear, only feeling the blood that must be dripping from her nose.

“Glory, Bliss...” the Nurturer ran her hand through Bliss's sandy hair.

“It's fine, we're fine,” Bliss insisted. “Just a bit heated is all.” She's heard the words before from other Pups.

The Nurturer gripped Bliss's wrist, hauling her up roughly. The woman then gripped Bliss's shoulders tightly, bending down to be inches from Bliss's face.

“You aren't one of them, Bliss,” she hissed. “You think you are because your mommy and daddy say so but you're not, you never will be. You're a lady, start acting like it.”

Now, her lip quivered.

“Let's get you cleaned up. Glory forbid either of the Dignitaries see you like this... we might have a dead Pup on our hands.”

–

“Are you kidding me?” Capable glared down at Bliss. “A fight? Really?”

“He said--”

“I don't care what Cavity said! You could have gotten so hurt, Bliss. Those boys, they don't relent, you're lucky you just hurt your nose,” Capable spat, running her hand through her hair.

“Mom, I--”

“Stop. Stop talking. I've told you so many times, I've showed you how to deescalate a situation, and you go and do this? What is your father going to do? He can barely fathom you skinning your knee.”

“He called me--”

“Bliss! You're eight years old, you know this is ridiculous. I have to go find dad, okay? Just...” she sighed, closing her eyes, “just... go to your room.”

Bliss nodded, looking down to the floor as she picked herself up and hauled herself through the door and slamming it behind her.

Capable would have to deal with the attitude later.

–

Bliss had heard the commotion in the foyer. She hugged Whiskers as she listened to the yelling, dad was mad, mom was too. She heard Toast and Cheedo and a Nurturer. How could this happen? Was no one watching them? Where did she learn how to fight? She's eight, this isn't supposed to happen yet.

She closed her eyes when she heard the door open slowly, then come to a click shortly after. Her back faced the door as she scrunched herself up further underneath the blankets, tears welling. She'd messed up. She ruined everything. She'd never be able to go back to the Pups, she'd have to sit in this room for the rest of her life.

The weight shifted on the bed, someone sitting on it. She didn't move, trying to slow her breathing and ease the tightness in her chest.

Then, a hand. On her side.

Unmistakably dad's.

He said nothing, only ran his hand up and down her side through the blankets. She let some tears fall, not wanting to go through the conversation where he told her she'd never see them again, never see Cavity again. He was a jackass, but she liked him. He treated her as badly as he treated the other Pups; it was a disturbing thought, but a comforting one as well.

“Can you sit up?” he was surprisingly soft. 

She settled for a moment, then shuffled the blankets from her as she turned and sat up, leaning against her pillows and meeting Nux's gentle, blue eyes.

“Are you okay?” he asked, his hand on her leg now. He was painted. She'd interrupted his work.

“Sorry, I'm sorry for everything. Please, I'm real--”

“Answer the question,” he was firm but soft. She'd just noticed the red rings around his eyes.

“Yeah, dad, I'm fine,” she nodded. He nodded in return.

He sighed, then, surprisingly, he smiled. “How many hits did you get in?”

She tilted her head, her brows furrowed, a smile growing. “What?”

“How many times did you get him?” he insisted, his eyebrows raising.

She stared, incredulous. “I don't know... one or two? Three?”

He nodded, placing his hand on her back. “Good.”

Her jaw slacked in disbelief, her eyes scanning the room. “What?” she repeated.

Nux chuckled, breathy. “You think I never got in any fights as a Pup?”

Bliss looked to the floor then. “Nurturer Frit says I'm not a Pup.”

He was the one to tilt his head, then. “What does she mean?”

“She said I'd never be one of them, and that the only reason I'm there is because you and mom lie to me and say I am,” her lip quivered. 

Nux pouted, reaching up to scratch the back of his neck. “Well, that's not true. You play like a Pup, you learn like a Pup,” he grinned and patted her back, “you fight like a Pup. Sounds a lot like being a Pup to me.”

“She said it's because I'm a lady.”

Nux glared at the door, then. “What's that got to do with anything? You keep up with the rest of them.”

“That's what I'm saying,” her newly wet hair falling in her face.

He laughed, then. She was so animated for being so young.

“What started it?” he turned back to her.

“He said that I'm too good at fletch-catch and that no one wants me on the team,” she shuffled her feet under the blankets.

“Well that makes no sense,” Nux brushed the hair from her face. “Wouldn't you being good mean they want you on the team?”

She shrugged.

“That's not it and both of us know it,” he prodded. 

She met his gaze, only to close her eyes. “They said I'd make a good breeder.”

Nux's grin faded into a tight line. He swallowed, feeling the rage he'd suppressed moments ago in the hallway creep back up. No, no. It's not her. Don't yell at her.

“Did you tell mom that?” he asked.

“I tried, but she just wanted me to go to my room.”

Nux shook his head. He felt his heart race. They dare call his daughter a breeder? The first healthy female to be born in the Citadel under the Dignitaries would certainly be no breeder. How dare he?

“Cavity's getting' his ass handed to him right now,” Nux nodded, now vindictive, though towards a child. “There's not fighting allowed officially, especially not with my kid.”

“That's the thing,” she piped up, “I don't want to be special. I want to just... be like them.”

Nux let the silence hang in the room. He understood-- Capable was the same way, she hated when anyone doted on her or tried to help her when she didn't need it. She'd been treated like a teacup all her life. Bliss must have felt a bit coddled as well.

“That's why you fought, isn't it?” he finally said. “You want to be one of them, but the only one dumb enough to touch you was Cavity.”

She sighed, looking up at him. “I just... want some friends, is all. They fight all the time. Why can't I fight? Why can't I ride the motor trikes? Why can't I get painted?” she started to cry then, Nux reaching his arm around her and pulling her into his chest.

“I get it, it's alright,” he comforted. Her cries softened, comforted by dad's chest and his voice.

“He said something else, too,” she confided. Nux let out a curious hum.

“He said... um,” she wasn't sure how to word it, “that um... you're gonna go away. Soon.”

Nux swallowed, inhaling and exhaling to relieve the sadness that always accompanied the mention of his half-life. “I see.”

“I just got so mad, dad. I got so mad,” she muffled into his chest. He squeezed her harder.

She didn't deserve this. She didn't deserve any of this. She didn't deserve a half-life dad, she didn't deserve to be bullied for things she couldn't control. She didn't deserve to be crying right now.

“I'm not going anywhere, not soon,” he said as she parted from his chest, wiping her face. “I promise.”

She nodded, her ponytail bouncing.

“I'm gonna go talk to mom, okay? I'll be right back,” he assured, standing with a nod from Bliss, and moving towards the door.

–

A knock at the door.

She stepped into the room, moving to sit next to Nux on the bed.

“Mom, I'm sorry, I won't go back if you--”

“I'm sorry I didn't listen to you,” Capable swallowed, Nux's eyes on hers though she looked to Bliss.

Bliss looked up to her, who brushed the stray hairs from her face. 

“I didn't know he'd said such mean things about you. I was just mad, Bliss. Not at you, though.”

“You always say that, but you always yell at me.”

Capable sighed. “Just like you learn every day, mom and dad have to as well.”

Bliss nodded. She understood.

Capable pulled her in for a hug. “No one is mad at you. We're just upset that it's so rough with the Pups.”

“Are you gonna make me stop going?” she whimpered.

Capable sighed. “It would be cruel to prohibit you from interacting with people your age.”

Bliss smiled.

“But,” Capable's gaze turned more focused, “there will be no more of that fighting. If any of those Pups insults you, you deescalate, okay? It's just... they're still so rough.”

“Yeah,” she nodded. “I know.”

Capable pulled her in for another tight hug. “I love you,” she whispered into her hair. 

“I love you too, mom.”

–

The Citadel was flourishing like the crops that grew in the now-massive greenhouse. Currency had taken off, money exchanged so quickly for goods that the Wretched often had enough to buy more than their predetermined allowance of water or food. The War Boys churned out beautiful vehicles, the bloodline for all trade and product creation. The War Boys were a proud group, every faction working together to create something they cherished. In nine years, the Citadel had transformed into one of the strongest economies any of the territories had ever seen. 

It hadn't come easy. Furiosa had to fight for respect, proving her worth over many trades, negotiations, and other business. It was remarkable-- not a single war was started in nine years between the territories, a great feat. Furiosa was indeed respected by all who worked with her and under her. No one respected her more than the Sisters, though, seeing her devotion to her people and also to them as a Sister. Furiosa was bitter at how she often just didn't have time to spend with the women, though they assured her that if they needed anything, they would seek her out.

No one saw more growth in those nine years than Bliss.

“Look, mom!” she called from her room, just waking up. “it's true! You said she'd come and she did!” she held up the red sweet when Capable walked in the room, smiling.

“I told you,” she said. “If you leave a tooth under your pillow, the tooth fairy will come and leave something sweet for you.”

“I thought you said sweets weren't good for your teeth,” she popped it into her mouth, the sweetness still something very rare in the Citadel. Sugar was hard to grow and manufacture, it was the Dag's greatest project. 

“Well, the tooth fairy's a bit of a ditz, huh?” Capable ruffled Bliss's hair. 

“Can I show dad?” she was excited.

“You just ate it, what's to show him?”

“Well, I mean, tell him, then...”

Capable sighed, guiding Bliss to the door for breakfast. “I think we should let him sleep a bit longer. After lunch you can show him.”

“But that's so far away!” she whined, the door closing behind them.

Neither of them said another word as they passed Capable and Nux's bedroom, the door closed, then descended the staircase to join the other women for breakfast.

–

“Fuck, fuck, shit, fuck, fuck,” Flaps carried Nux away from the engine room, Nux's pained groans painting every ebb in his step. He carried him to the bunks, quiet from the daytime bustle elsewhere.

Nux collapsed into the bunk, sweating too much and breathing too hard. Flaps stayed with him, holding his hand, squeezing it tightly like Nux said he liked. He tried to mouth “thank you” but was more concerned with not passing out.

“She'll be right, mate,” Flaps comforted, watching Nux's chest heave. 

Nux let his head collapse into the sad excuse for a pillow that was in Flaps's bunk, the coolness much appreciated.

“Mate, it's alright if you need me to take over, just 'ead home 'n relax...” he said softly over Nux's pained groans.

He opened his eyes, making eye contact with Flaps. He couldn't see him. He could only see the black rim that centered around his vision and the blurry whiteness that must have been Flaps. Oh Glory, I can't see, I can't see, my head...

“Flaps...” he closed his eyes again, breathing heavy. His head didn't just feel light... it felt painful. “Flaps, get Remedy.”

He nodded, rushing out of the bunks to do so. Nux heaved, forcing his chest to go up, down, up down. It was getting harder every time. Every day, he had gotten worse... new pains, more things he couldn't do.

And now this.

He felt his lungs refuse to open, only a wheeze escaping. Glory, glory, please...

His heart slowed, his temperature only rising, the chill on his skin only from fear. Why today? Why was today the day?

His arms went slack, unable to move them, dangling from the bunk. His vision came in and out of focus, the blackness returning when he didn't blink. He found it harder to keep his eyes open, to scan the room, with every second that passed.

“Glory,” Remedy rushed through the door, Flaps behind her. She grabbed Nux's skull, pointing his face towards her. His jaw was lax, his eyes dull and scanning. 

“Fuck,” she tapped his face lightly. “Nux, Nux, are you there?”

His eyes fluttered closed, and then open. 

“Fuck,” she repeated. Flaps stayed in the doorway, his hand covering his mouth, tears welling.

“Nah mate, not now, nah, nah...” he repeated. Remedy ignored him as she rustled through her bag.

She held the stethoscope to his chest, an innovation only recently brought back from extinction. 

She heard it. It was weak, but it was there. Though his lungs didn't sound good, his heart was still pumping, though slowly and weakly.

She shook her head, tears welling in her own eyes. She cursed them; she swore to keep emotions out of this. She pulled the stethoscope out of her ears, Nux's eyes stopping their scan and settling on the distant air in front of him.

“Nux!” she called to him. Other War Boys had gathered in the doorway now, silent, though Flaps shook with each cry that overtook him.

Then, his chest stopped moving.

Remedy scrambled, her shaky hands on his chest, sensing any movement that there could be. There was none.

“Fuck, fuck, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Nux,” she reached into her bag, pulling out a smaller red container. Opening it frantically, she looked towards the Boys that watched her intently.

“Watch, or don't. I recommend the latter,” she insisted, her shaky hands revealing the largest syringe any of them had ever seen. 

No one moved.

“Suit yourselves,” Remedy poked at the syringe, removing the plastic cover on the needle. She placed one hand on Nux's shoulder, like a ragdoll, and in one swift movement, plunged the needle between Nux's fourth and fifth rib. She pushed the syringe down, a scowl on her face, the other War Boys already hanging their heads.

Silence for a moment.

Then his chest began moving again, a squeaky whine escaping his parted lips. The Boys remained motionless, Remedy hovering over him, scanning for any signs. His eyes fluttered close, his eyes rolling to the back of his head. 

She nodded, a small grin growing as she turned to the Boys who stared at her and Nux. 

“He's alive,” she said, her hand on his chest feeling his heart beat. “He's alive.”

They sighed, Flaps removing his hand from his mouth and rushing to Nux's side. The syringe was still plunged into his chest, but he nestled his head into Nux's shoulder, his eyes squeezed shut. Remedy retrieved some supplies from her bag.

“I have to remove the needle,” she said, basically telling Flaps to move. And he did.

She held gauze close to the insertion site as she pulled, very slowly, it needed to come out in the same exact way it had gone in, or she would rupture his heart. It was painstaking, blood leaking into the gauze with every centimeter the needle was removed, but with time, it was done.

“What now?” Flaps asked, still hovering over Nux as Remedy snapped the red box closed over the syringe.

“Now, he rests. He probably thinks he's dead in there,” he patted his head. “He'll wake up in a few hours.”

“How'd ya do that?” a Boy asked from the crowd.

“It's... It's adrenaline,” she answered, not knowing who to look at. Was she a God?

They stared back, blank.

“It was shot into his heart,” she continued, not really feeling like explaining what adrenaline was though they all know the feeling. “It's not a permanent fix, but...” she swallowed, “I didn't want him to die here.”

They nodded, starting to move away, V8 signs flashing.

–

He woke, feeling softness at his shoulder and warmth down his torso.

Bliss.

His vision was coming into focus, turning his head to the side to bury his nose in her hair, so curly and long now. Where had she gotten such curly hair? Do I have curly hair?

“Dad!” she turned, looking up to meet his dazed face. He couldn't control the smile that grew on his face, seeing her, seeing her.

I can see.

I'm not dead.

I'm not dead.

How? 

Capable rushed into the room, meeting his dreary gaze, his smile growing wider. Glory, is this Valhalla? Did He bestow upon me that which makes me the happiest in my afterlife?

No, I'm still here. I'm still here.

Because my chest fucking hurts.

Capable was on her knees next to him, her hand on his head. She leaned in to kiss his forehead, his cheek.

“How?” he cracked out, seeing the other Sisters fill into the room despite focusing entirely on Capable. Bliss lay next to him, her arm wrapped around his chest.

“Remedy,” Capable smiled. 

“Remedy,” Nux repeated, laughing only once before the pain in his chest was too much.

“Yeah?” he turned his head to see Remedy between Toast and Cheedo.

“Glory...” his vision was clearer now, grogginess still claiming him, though he saw Remedy approach and take his hand in hers.

He laughed as much as he could, the women surrounding him smiling with him.

I'm alive.

I'm here.

At least for now.

–

She spun out, the back wheels of the trike spinning around the front one, Cavity's following suit. They laughed, the engines rumbling under their feet, kicking up dust as they chased each other in the desert, the other Pups waiting their turn. Capable watched from the platform, the sun beginning to hang low in the sky, her hair blowing in the desert breeze.

“Hey,” Nux said from behind her. She turned to see and unpainted Nux.

“You're not supposed to be home until nine,” she panicked slightly. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah, yeah,” he nodded, moving closer to her, wrapping his arms around her waist. “I just um...”

“If you need to rest, just hang the cloth over the door handle, I'll stay in--”

He encapsulated his lips around hers, shocking her, though she closed her eyes and pushed her body into his. She wrapped her arms around his neck when he deepened the kiss, his arms tightening around her.

He broke the kiss, moving to her neck, Capable giggling and rubbing the back of his neck. “What're you doing?”

“Kissing you,” he answered matter-of-fact, inducing another giggle from Capable.

“I missed you,” he continued, feeling her warmth under his lips, such soft skin, so smooth.

Capable grinned, the kisses sending jolts down her spine. “You left early because you missed me?”

He looked to her eyes then, his forehead touching hers.

“Should I go back?” he teased, tonguing her earlobe like he knew she loved so much.

She giggled and looked up to him, mischief in his eyes. 

“I have to watch the Pups,” Nux kissed her, “they'll kill each other if I don't.”

He pursed his lips and his eyes scanned her body seductively as he stepped away. “We can do that, then.”

She was slightly shocked when he simply leaned on the railing next to her, watching the Pups like she had been doing moments ago. Her skin yearned for more, but she joined him, watching the Pups twirl around in the sand, yelling and laughing.

Bliss was only distinguishable because of her curly brown hair, her behavior exactly like the myriad of white below. Nux seemed content to look down at her, hearing her laughs from this far up.

“Recka,” Capable called. A Nurturer appeared in the doorway, surprised to see Nux.

“Yes?” she was obviously under Capable's authority, respectful, hands clasped at the front.

“Can you watch the Pups? Nux needs to rest and I'd like to keep my eye on him,” she smiled, her hand on the small of Nux's back. He smiled and, when his gaze met Recka's, nodded.

Recka grinned, “of course, Dignitary. Please feel better, Dignitary Nux,” she replaced Capable's spot at the lookout, Nux following Capable as she glided out of view.

“Capable, I--”

His back was shoved into the wall, Capable's lips claiming his, soft but rough. He grinned into her kiss, feeling her buck into him, trying to stay silent so Recka wouldn't hear, the only sounds their hot breaths clashing into each others' skin.

There were times where she was dominant. It was rare, but when it needed to happen, it did. She'd never felt in control sexually, only recently trying to be the top, and found she'd enjoyed it immensely. Immortan had never allowed her the pleasure.

There were times where she was dominant.

And this was one of them.

–

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Bliss said to Cavity, who was hunched under her. He twisted a knob, pushed a button...

“Yeah, yeah, why not? I see the Boys do it all the time,” Cavity reassured, the darkness around them murky though she held a lantern.

“You're not supposed to take vehicles out at night,” Bliss said, her eyes searching the dark room for any other people. She could feel her heart pound in her chest: nervousness, anxiety.

But also excitement.

“Like I said,” Cavity snapped something into place and the engine roared to life, “the War Boys do it all the time. Why not us? Come on, get on the lancer's deck.”

In reality, the “lancer's deck” was just the back of the trike. It was much bigger than it started, space added on to accommodate growing legs. Bliss swallowed, hesitant, as Cavity jumped into the driver's seat, his hands on the wheel. 

His painted face beamed in the low light, but fell when Bliss didn't board the trike.

“What's the matter?” he asked over the engine's noises.

“We're not supposed to do this,” she reaffirmed, her brows furrowed.

“Typical girl,” Cavity dragged the gear shift, “always so afraid of everything. Why not be a real Pup and have some fun?”

A real Pup. Why did it always feel like she had to prove herself? Why was being with the Pups never enough for Cavity?

She looked down, then met Cavity's encouraging eyes.

The trike jumped forward, the light of the lantern sinking into the darkness behind the loudly laughing Cavity. Bliss squinted into the sand that was kicked up from under the tires.

–

“Imperator.”

Her eyes shot open, her name screamed from a guard outside her bedroom door with a knock. She scrambled to get up, her groggy feet gaining stability with every step she took. She opened the door to her personal guard, standing upright. There was something wrong.

“There's an unidentified Citadel vehicle headed towards Gas Town,” he informed. “Do you have any record of a night recon?”

Furiosa breathed heavily, her eyes switching from right to left. No, no there was no missions tonight, no reason for a vehicle to be leaving the Citadel.

She shook her head, meeting eyes with her guard. He turned to follow when Furiosa pushed past him to advance towards the platform watchdeck. The telescope would be useless; it was too dark to see anything past the Citadel's dim lights from the hightower. She could easily see, though, the light of a vehicle as it traveled east, heading towards the other territory.

“What the fuck?” she gripped the deck's railing. The other guards looked to her, seeking guidance from the bewildered Imperator.

“Send out a Reacher,” she commanded. 

–

“Boys! Ay ay!” Nux called from the archway into the bunks. He wasn't painted, though he wore his pants and his favorite boots.

They called out to him, the dim silhouettes of their heads catching the light of Nux's lantern. What, mate? The fuck you doing? What time is it? He had bags under his eyes though they were wide, excited.

“Anyone missin'?” he called out, antagonizing, seeing that every Boy had stuck their heads out of their bunks. 

“What?” one called to him.

“There's an unauthorized Citadel vehicle headed right to Gas Town. Which one of you fucks knows anything about it?” he was slightly joking.

“Nah, mate,” one Boy called out before stretching. “Wait, there's a rig out there? Ain't no one heard any engines.”

Nux entered the bunks then, the Boys meeting his gaze, serious. 

“Imperator Furiosa demands we send a Reacher,” he said, the light of the lantern painting the rock orange. 

“Well that's great,” the Boy next to him said. “Why you gotta wake all of us up for that?”

Nux glared. “'Cuz, moron, if this is some crazy overthrowing shit then we gotta take that down.”

“You'd know a lot about crazy overthrowing shit.”

Nux grinned. “You want this place to go back to the way it used to be?”

Silence.

“Then get the fuck up.”

–

“Imperator,” one guard called, his hand waving. She went to his side. “The vehicle's crossed the territory border.”

Furiosa cursed. What the hell was this? There's no way just one small vehicle could do anything substantial, is there? Were they planning a robbery?

“Where is the Reacher?”

Another guard answered, “the Boys are lowering it as we speak. Should be in the sand in two minutes.”

She sighed. “And you woke Nux?”

“Yes, Imperator.”

“He's down there, I assume?”

“Yes, Imperator.”

She nodded. The Boys would listen to him much more doggedly than anyone else. 

Suddenly, more lights appeared in the distance, from the east. Two, then four, then six.

“Gas Town's sending out responders,” one guard said.

“Shit,” she rushed back to the ledge, her eyes focused on the lights that descended from Gas Town.

The Citadel vehicle stopped. It began again with a wiggle, then, it circled. 

“What's it doing?” one guard said.

Furiosa's mouth gaped, her jaw slacked. 

“It's making o-rings,” she said flatly.

The guards looked to one another, confused. Why would a Citadel vehicle be doing children's sport? Especially not in Citadel territory? Especially as the moon hung highest in the sky?

Furiosa's eyes widened, her breath hitched.

“The driver has no idea what he's doing,” she said, her knuckles turning white, “because he's a kid.”

They could only look on as the sound of gunshots permeated the air, thick in their lungs.

–

The Reacher sped out of the dock, full speed. The driver slammed the pedal down as far as it could go, switching gears as quickly as he needed to.

His lancer scanned the horizon. He heard gunshots, banging on the roof of the Reacher four times.

The driver nodded. Gas Town was retaliating.

He sped along, his knuckles turning white and his goggles feeling too tight on his face.

–

“Mom.”

Capable was being shaken. Her eyes slowly drifted open, the darkness making nothing apparent.

“Mom,” the voice said again, scared and worried.

“Bliss...” she groaned, swallowing.

“Mom, Cavity is gonna get hurt, he's out, he's gonna--”

“Bliss,” she reached up to grab her arm gently, “slow down. What's wrong?”

Bliss sighed, shaking and almost crying. “Bliss took out the trike,” she said, trying to keep calm. “And now everyone is going after him.”

Capable rolled her eyes. She'd have to punish the moron later. “They're gonna go get him, Bliss, he'll just be in trouble.”

“No, mom,” tears welled now, “no, Gas Town.”

Capable was confused. Obviously Bliss was too distraught to communicate clearly. Then it clicked. Gas Town was going after Cavity who had taken out the trike.

Oh, Glory.

Capable sat up, pushing the blankets out of her way. Bliss moved aside as Capable rushed towards the door, and followed when she swung it open.

–

“Can we send another Reacher? To let him now?” Furiosa queried, examining the lights that drew closer to the Citadel's vehicle. The Reacher was almost to it, its light paving the way. Gas Town had sent out three Gunners, agile and dangerous.

“It won't make it to him in time,” one guard said. “He'll figure it out.”

Furiosa swallowed.

Another gun shot. They weren't aiming to kill, obviously, or the vehicle would have stopped moving. Instead, it headed west.

Stupid kid must not know which way was home.

Now that the Pup drove west, the Reacher would take longer to reach him. Furiosa hoped her Boys would reach the Pup sooner than the Gas Town Boys would.

“Furiosa,” someone called to her from the doorway. She turned to see Capable, her hand on the back of Bliss's head, both with worried faces.

“Nux will be fine,” she assured, her eyes almost rolling.

“No, no Furiosa,” Capable approached her. “Cavity is out there. Cavity's out on the trike.”

Furiosa nodded, her suspicions confirmed.

“What happened?” she asked, her eyes on Bliss.

“He wanted to be like a War Boy,” Bliss said meekly. “He found the key in the bunks.”

“How do you know?” Furiosa was kind, but strict. She'd never been good with kids, often resenting them for their innocence, but now she found it came to her quite naturally.

“He wanted me to go with,” she answered.

Furiosa looked back up to the lights. They were approaching Cavity quickly. She had to take desperate measures. Capable looked down to Bliss, her eyes wide.

“Fire up the whites,” she commanded to the guard closest to her.

“But, Imperator,” he blinked, “then they would assume we were doing battle in the first place.”

“I don't care, they're gonna kill the kid,” she screamed. Bliss's features twisted, Capable reaching down to comfort her. “We'll deal with that later.”

The guard nodded, sending the command along to, eventually through the chain of guards, the hightower control. It was a small room, more like a nook, that held exactly one watchman and the collection of flares that could be fired from atop the hightower. The watchman nodded, settling three white flares into the firing base.

He looked up when he heard an explosion on the horizon.

–

The driver turned the wheel as fast as he could, the explosion rattling the Reacher and almost toppling it. He could smell the gunpowder. Speeding away from the explosion site, he looked up through the sun roof to see a thumbs-up from his lancer. Glory be.

“Why're they bombing?” his lancer called over the roar of the engine.

“I don't know,” the driver answered, his heart pumping, racing, matching the speed of the Reacher. 

“How much farther 'till the rig?” the driver called.

“'Bout a mile.”

“Where are the Gas Town Boys?”

“Half a mile, mate.”

The driver pounded his fist into the wheel, the adornments rattling. He'd give it to whatever fuckwit had stolen a vehicle and decided to take it for a joyride. Absolutely shred them.

–

“Fuck,” Furiosa cursed as the explosion lit up the horizon, the Reacher getting lost in the smoke from it. 

Capable's eyes widened and Bliss cried quietly. 

The guards only looked on.

Soon, though, three pops rang through the air.

“Hopefully the flairs are visible at this time of night,” Furiosa murmured, watching the trike spin out, coming to a halt in the sand. It started up again, though, moving towards the Citadel now.

The Reacher emerged from the smoke to thankful stares from the hightower.

–

The vehicle stopped, then, and then began zooming across the sand again when it had turned back towards the Citadel.

The Reacher was closer to the vehicle now than the Gas Town Boys, now that the rig had changed course.

Three white flairs. Pop pop pop.

The driver nodded, knowing that Furiosa must be running around like a maniac up there. He smiled to himself.

He neared the vehicle, the headlights catching on the chrome that glinted. The driver squinted his eyes behind his goggles, trying to make out the vehicle in the dim light. The Gas Town Boys neared, their lancers ready at the guns that were soldered to the top of their rigs. Why were they on the offensive? The Citadel sent up three white flairs.

Bullets rang through the Reacher's hull, its thick steel adopting holes where they penetrated it. They must no longer be interested in the original vehicle, focusing more on the armed Reacher.

The lancer ducked into the platform, the hull protecting him from the bullets. The Gas Town Boys relented as the lancer sent up his hand, three fingers raised. The white flares weren't a gimmick; they were really surrendering.

The Gas Town Boys called out in victory, easily audible over their engines. They continued the pursuit with lowered guns, though, as the Reacher followed the original vehicle back into Citadel territory.

The original vehicle had begun to slow down; the Reacher's driver assumed it was from lack of guzzoline. It was small, a tiny Infiltrator maybe? There weren't many small rigs they'd built, bigger being better in the wasteland.

Except four.

The driver's mouth dropped open, the realization hitting him in the chest.

“It's a trike!” he called up to his lancer. “It's one of the Pups!”

Then another stab at his heart sent him reeling. 

“Are ya sure?” he heard, distant compared to the blood rushing in his ears.

He was silent as he pressed on, nearing the vehicle as it puttered to a stop.

–

“It's alright, they stopped shooting, it's okay,” Furiosa repeated to Bliss and Capable, obviously disturbed.

Capable ran her hand through Bliss's hair, calming her.

“Imperator, the vehicle is stopping,” one guard called out.

It was true. The trike had stopped moving. Finally, a sign of intelligence.

“What're you going to do about this?” Furiosa kept her gaze on the spectacle below, though her words were pointed towards Capable.

“I... I don't know...” she stuttered. She really didn't. Why hadn't the nightwatch Nurturer known about this? How could a trike be taken out, weren't they locked up? 

The Reacher stopped with the trike, the headlights going out.

All visibility of the situation went with the halted light.

–

The Gunners stopped as well, their engines still puttering and their headlights too dim to blind anyone. 

The driver's boots slammed into the sand as he thrust himself towards the trike, his lancer hopping down from the perch.

His heart pounded. Please don't be, please don't be...

And it wasn't.

“Cavity!” his voice boomed, the terrified Pup sniveling and crying beneath him.

“Dignitary! Dignitary, please, I'm sorry, I'm-- ah!” Nux reached down to grip the boy's upper arm, pulling him from the seat of the trike. He was planted into the sand, meeting Nux's shadowed eyes as he was suddenly face-to-face with him.

“What the fuck are you doing?” he growled, his grip on the boy's arms firm and slightly painful.

Cavity sniffled and avoided Nux's glare. “I-- I just wanted, I wanted... to be a War Boy,” he concluded, another harsh round of cries overtaking him.

Nux let him go, standing up to meet Flaps and two Gas Town Boys behind him.

“Tell your leader,” Nux called to them, forgetting his name, “that this little fuckhead decided to take a joyride. Our apologies.”

The Gas Town Boys laughed, sending an unfamiliar hand signal to the other Gunners. Their engines roared as they turned and zoomed east, leaving only one.

“Hey, Nux,” Flaps uttered. “Don't call him names like that. You were there, too, once.”

Nux looked down at the Pup who covered his face with his hands, sitting in the sand.

He sighed, looking at the trike. He'd taken advantage of one of the greatest things the Boys had done for him. 

“Let's figure out how to get this thing back in the garage,” Nux stayed on task, advancing towards the Reacher. “Do we gotta tow boat?”

“Yeah,” Flaps walked with him, craning his head to watch the boy that shook into the sand. He pulled out a metal sheet and a chain, hooking one end up to the end of the Reacher and the other to the “boat”.

Nux walked back over to the trike as the Gas Town Boys sent their mocking regards, boarded their Gunner, and zoomed off. Cavity looked up to meet Nux's gaze, not entirely visible in the darkness of the night. The moon had hung too high in the sky to give any light.

“Cavity,” he finally said, breaking the silence, “are you okay?”

Cavity shook his head, his features twisting once more. Nux bent down to wrap his arm around the boy's cold shoulders, trying to remain neutral. He panicked, though.

“Were you shot?” he asked, skimming the boy's body; there were no signs of such a thing.

He shook his head again.

“C'mon, get in the Reacher,” Nux murmured into the Pup's scalp, his breath warm against sweat-chilled skin. The boy nodded, getting up and stumbling to Flaps, who helped him get into the Reacher.

Nux swallowed, closing his eyes. He was glad to feel furious instead of miserable, the perpetrator being Cavity instead of Bliss. He counted his blessings as he dragged the trike to the boat, hitched it up, and opened the driver's side door.

–

The Reacher sent up a purple flair, its embers popping in the dark sky. Barely visible, but visible indeed.

The hightower attendants sighed in relief, all but one. 

“What does that mean?” Bliss uttered.

“It means everyone is safe,” Furiosa explained, her voice soft. Her heart rate slowed, her eyes softening. Bliss smiled.

“You were good to come to me,” Capable patted her head. “I'm very, very glad that you didn't go with him. Look at all the trouble he caused.”

Bliss nodded. She wished she'd tried to convince him to not go more than she did, but deep down she knew that it would have been futile. 

“The Gas Town Boys must've gotten a laugh out of this one,” one of the guards said lightheartedly.

Furiosa shot daggers at him. “Of course. They're laughing at our horrible security.”

Silence then.

They watched as the Reacher advanced towards the Citadel, the moon hanging lower in the sky.

–

Bliss sauntered out from the bathroom, clutching the white fabric in her hand. Her ponytail bounced as she hurried away from the door, into the hallway.

“Dag!” she called, relieved. The Dag looked up to her from her seed sorting, tilting her head as the very concerned Bliss approached her.

“What's the matter, small creature?” she placed her hand on Bliss's cheek.

“I think I'm sick,” she peeped, scared.

“Oh no,” The Dag's brows furrowed, her beauty still very much in tact after ten years. “Why's that?” She felt her forehead: normal, no fever.

Bliss held up the white fabric, her palm opening to reveal the spot of red that dotted the linen.

“Am I gonna die?” her eyes switched between Dag's left and right, only to be confused when she smiled.

“Sweet creature,” the Dag grabbed the linen from Bliss's hands, motioning for her to sit on the couch next to her. “You're not sick.”

Bliss was confused. “What?”

The Dag ran her hand along the nape of Bliss's neck. “Are you in any pain?”

Bliss shook her head.

“Consider yourself lucky,” the Dag giggled lowly. “We should go find your mother, she can explain everything.”

Bliss seemed comforted by the Dag's soft touches. Since she was a small child, the Dag was always the most gentle, the most comforting with her touches. Nux sometimes seemed too afraid to touch her, afraid he'd break her, but the Dag was so comfortable with her little body that every stroke was confident and sweet.

Bliss stood with the Dag, her hand on the back of Bliss's head, guiding her towards the stairwell.

–

Capable sometimes felt like she was herding cattle, trying to wrangle in the Pups despite their own interests. The sun was perched high in the sky, noon's heat especially unbearable today.

“Capable,” the Dag approached her softly, Bliss at her side. The Dag held out the white linen in her hand, Capable knowing immediately what was happening and felt a rush of... something... go through her. Was it sadness? Was it pride? Excitement?

No.

She didn't know what it was.

“The Dag says I'm not sick,” she said.

Capable nodded, the Dag making eye contact with her and sharing a knowing glance.

“No, Bliss,” Capable felt her throat tighten. “You're not sick.”

–

Menstruation was a huge event for the Sisters when they were Wives. Immortan had often abducted them before they were of age to bleed, and when they did for the first time, it was a hightower-wide celebration. He threw a party with food and music, he made each wife the center of attention for the whole duration of their period, his guards doting on them, bringing them sweets and tea and games.

They didn't know that at the end of their time, he would violate them. The first of many attempts to impregnate the now fertile girls, often only ten or twelve. Since they were so young it often took into their late teens and early twenties before a fetus successfully implanted. Capable was the last to get hers; she was fifteen. Something about the malnutrition of childhood or the stress of her situation had held it off.

Now, though, Bliss was ten years old and she was a woman. Her breasts began to develop, not much, but present. She was shorter than the other ten year olds of the Citadel, but just as vibrant. She was rough and gritty like the rest of the Pups, adopting their slang and dreaming of being a War Boy like the rest of them. Her dreams didn't include children, they didn't include nurturing, they included the almighty V8, the roar of the accelerator as she pressed down the gas pedal, the wind rushing past her ears and the sand catching in her hair.

She was the first of many, many women who had seen this time as a time of impeding doom, to see it instead as something beautiful. 

Capable helped her clean up, her explanation artistic and medical, a strong blend of the two.

“The other Pups don't get it?” she asked, the clean linen feeling good against her skin.

“You're the only girl Pup, Bliss,” Capable said. “And only girls get it.”

Bliss nodded. Another thing for them to ostracize her about, another thing to make her different from them. Great.

Bliss wanted to return to the Pups shortly after a hug from Capable, who still felt the unfamiliar tug in her gut. Lucky girl, no pain yet. Who knew if that would change.

The Dag waited outside for Capable and, upon seeing her emerge, wrapped her arm around her shoulder. 

“It's alright,” the Dag pulled in the quivering Capable who had tried to keep it locked inside her, “she's not going to get hurt. Not anymore.”

“Not anymore,” Capable nodded into the Dag's shoulder. “Not anymore.”

–

“Now? Today?” Nux blinked.

“Yes, this afternoon,” Capable said, sitting on the bed.

“You-- you said later, twelve or thirteen,” he breathed, sitting next to her.

“She's an early bloomer, I suppose.”

Nux inhaled a deep breath and held it in a moment before releasing it. “What does this mean?”

“It just means she'll be going through a lot of changes.”

“What kinds of changes?”

Capable turned to meet his concerned eyes, her hand on his knee. She leaned in to kiss his nose; his weak spot. He grinned slightly. She was calming him down.

“Bodily ones. She'll get taller, her hips will widen...” Capable noticed him swallow. “Lots of emotional changes. She'll cling less to you and more to herself.”

He looked down, then. She wouldn't want to be around him as much? Would she still want to go on joyrides, do o-rings in the desert? Would she want him to read to her, to help him read? Would she be so enthusiastic to do simple errands with him? Would she want to visit the Boys as much? His thoughts raced, anxious.

“She will always love you,” Capable said, noticing his internal conflict. “But she has to grow up sometime. And now...” Capable swallowed, “now, she has a choice of what she wants to do with her life.”

Nux met Capable's watery eyes, small smiles on both of their faces. Nux pulled her in for a tight hug, feeling her squeeze him back. She could choose.

–

“Do you really want to?” Nux grinned, Bliss's excited face beaming up at him.

She nodded enthusiastically, her long brown hair bouncing. After so many times of him saying no, was he really saying yes?

“Alright, fine,” he chuckled, ruffling her hair between his fingers. She squealed, wrapping her arms around his hips.

“Stay here, I'll be right back,” Nux nodded to her. She obeyed as he turned and descended the staircase.

She bounced on her feet. Today was going to be the day. Finally. She felt she could jump right onto the moon right now.

When Nux returned, he held two black canisters. “C'mon,” he held his unoccupied hand out, grabbed by Bliss as they advanced towards the other Pups.

“Pups!” Nux called out. They all turned to him, chins up, chests out. “Big day today!”

“Why?” Cavity called out. He's grown so much, just like Bliss, filling out from all the games and work.

“Bliss here,” he urged her to stand in front of him, “is getting painted.”

The Pups erupted in cheer, their previously stoic stances not lasting at all. Capable watched on from the platform, giving a nod to Nux. He tapped on Bliss's shoulder and, when she looked up to him, he pointed her out, her red hair dancing. Bliss waved rapidly, Capable smiling and waving back.

“How're you gonna do it, Bliss?”

“You should do a skull, that'd be real chrome.”

“Make a smiley face!”

“Lookit Red's, you should do it like his.”

Nux hushed them, setting the canisters in front of Bliss in the sand. “You all know it's a real personal thing.”

They nodded, murmuring among themselves.

Bliss opened the first one. White clay. The second: black clay. She looked up to her dad, who moved to sit in the sand next to her.

“I can't help you,” he reminded. She nodded.

Applying the clay was almost spiritual for the War Boys. You were only helped to reach places you couldn't-- this led to a lot of phallic symbols on a lot of backs. Nux chuckled remembering painting a big ol' dick on Slit's back, and the first time someone wrote “dipshit” on his. It was a running joke among the Boys: how long can this idiot go about his day without anyone mentioning the bullshit on his back?

The first time Nux painted himself he was just six, adopting the skull face paint that would be accentuated by scars later. He wouldn't let Bliss scar herself; that era seemed to be over. Self-mutilation in the name of the V8 and Immortan was long gone.

She dipped her hand into the white clay, cold on her fingers. This was really happening, she thought, I'm going to be a real Pup. She smeared it on half of her face vertically, the other half still bare. On the bare side, she circled her eye and covered her eyebrow. The Pups and her parents looked on in silence; interruptions were forbidden. She dipped her hand into the black now, rubbing it on the other half of her face, then circled the white-half eye. She opened her eyes, blue against black and white. Nux smiled, Capable too, and the rest of the Boys could barely contain their excitement as she closed the canisters, standing up.

Then they cheered.

Nux cheered with them, patting her back as she rubbed the excess clay on her linen pants. 

Bliss: balanced and equal, fair and worthy.

–

Remedy cut the skin skillfully, Nux gritting his teeth and squeezing his eyes shut.

“Sorry, sorry,” she harvested the sample, placing it in a plastic container, then slid it into her bag. “All done.”

“You're sure this is gonna be worth it?” Nux's clammy skin felt uncomfortable under the blankets.

“I'm very sure. I've dedicated a lot of time to this. If I can help the Wretched who show similar symptoms to you, I can help you, too.”

Nux swallowed and nodded. Age showed on his face-- too many years and too much sun. He smiled, though, hope gleaming through the fever he felt behind his eyes.

Hope was a mistake, he told himself as Remedy bandaged him.


End file.
